Yet another example of this Administration desperately shooting itself in the foot and turning their lies into truth.
If ICE gets access to our taxes, immigrants will stop paying. A real win for America.
Tom Bowman, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said disclosing immigrant tax records to DHS for immigration enforcement “will discourage tax compliance among immigrant communities, weaken contributions to essential public programs, and increase burdens for U.S. citizens and nonimmigrant taxpayers. It also sets a dangerous precedent for data privacy abuse in other federal programs.”
Props to the commisioner for refusing, but don’t just resign. Make them walk you out the door. We need more disobedience and malicious compliance.
The problem with the “make them walk you out the door” idea is that then they control the narrative. They will never say they fired you because you refused to compromise your ethics. They were firing you because of “insubordination”, “poor performance”, or some other bullshit.
By taking the initiative first and resigning, you get to control the narrative regarding your departure.
They’re gonna get rid of you one way or another if you defy them. Sticking around is not gonna magically fix things.
I don’t think they’d be able to control the narrative at all if done correctly.
If you get ahead of the firing, notify the news, and force them to trespass you, this headline could instead say “Trump handcuffs/arrests/forces out IRS Acting Commisioner for refusing to hand over taxpayer data to ICE”
But there will be some people who assume that if a Federal employee is handcuffed/arrested/forced out, that they must have done something wrong.
It’s a common mistake that you should avoid doing something because someone somewhere might take it the wrong way.
The narrative will be twisted, the lies will be spread, the propaganda will work. None of that is a reason to stop fighting, because none of that stops happening when you stop fighting, and very few of those people would have joined your side anyway.
Make them arrest you. Make them explain why. Sue them in court. Make them explain why again under oath.
We’re not dealing with the OG Nazis, who meticulously recorded their evil for the world to see. We’re dealing with new age Nazis, who set their national security messages to delete automatically and like to pretend that the FOIA doesn’t exist.
Use every tool at your disposal to slow them down, document their crimes, and cause Good Trouble.
I think you are making a mistake in assuming that publically resigning is “avoiding doing something”. It is making an affirmative statement that you were told to do something so unethical that you couldn’t continue in that capacity. It is doing something quite consequential. Done correctly, it can be more impactful than letting them fire you.
But there will be some people who assume that if a Federal employee is handcuffed/arrested/forced out, that they must have done something wrong.
I think you are making a mistake in assuming that publically resigning is “avoiding doing something”.
I never assumed that, I agree that public resignations are good - or at the very least, appropriate.
You suggested that some people may see an arrest and assume the worst. That is always a possibility. In fact, it is an inevitability that someone will assume the worst of anything you do. That is not a sufficient reason to avoid doing something - anything - in general.
Filling the spot so someone else cannot is also necessary
If ICE gets access to our taxes, immigrants will stop paying.
Which feeds right into the fascist narrative and gives them another reason to round people up.
Meh, already the majority of the population doesn’t believe they pay taxes anyway.
It’ll also help to underfund the system so that Republicans can pretend they need to cut more shit, like “entitlements” (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid).
But now they can show receipts.
Don’t get me wrong - lack of evidence of wrongdoing isn’t going to stop these assholes. But every tiny shred of “legitimacy” goes a long way when it comes to swaying the low-information “on the fence” types.
Resigning is just handing over the keys. Need to resist
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Next person will care less and do more to hurt things further.
That assumes there will be a next person. A lot of offices remain empty. Even she was acting commissioner. Perhaps having nobody to do his bidding at the IRS is the best option.
Get them to be scared to file taxes then get them for tax evasion. Worked with Al Capone, right?
Ah yes. Let’s arrest a bunch of immigrants for the terrible crime of… paying taxes.
Resigning only opens up the spot for a “loyal” 47 cock sucker
Illegal immigrants also go to the hospital or see doctors, when we do we release those records to help track them.
And clearly every good upstanding American citizen has health insurance, and only the dirty immigrants don’t, so we should just deport everyone that doesn’t have insurance to El Salvador because all their other documents must be fake if they don’t have insurance.
