ICE Gets Access to IRS, Medicaid Data, to Bolster Deportations; the Independent Can Now Accept Tax-Deductible Donations Like a Nonprofit–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: July 17, 2025

Indy Digest: July 17, 2025

The Coachella Valley Independent is (technically) a for-profit business. However, we’ve made a recent change that allows us to act, in some ways, as a nonprofit—meaning we can now accept donations and grants, from individuals and groups, that are tax-deductible and/or intended for nonprofits.

We now have a fiscal sponsor—the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation (ANF, altnewsfoundation.org). The foundation was started in 2002 as the “nonprofit arm” of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN Publishers), the trade group for independent publications like the Independent. While ANF’s goals have changed over the years, its primary mission today is to act as a fiscal sponsor for worthy news organizations across the country.

As ANF explains:

ANF serves as a fiscal sponsor to independent entities that are in the business of building and sustaining news and information infrastructure across the country.

ANF collaborates with the Black Press (National Newspaper Publishers Association, NNPA), the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), and AAN Publishers to advance the mission behind the Fund For Equity In Local News, a sponsored project of ANF that supports more than 500 Black and Latino-owned news outlets, local alternative publications, and online news sites.

ANF works side by side with AAN Publishers to support the core principles of the alternative press: Speaking truth to power, telling stories that would otherwise go untold, and giving voice to those who would otherwise go unheard.

Full disclosure: I am on the ANF board of directors (as an unpaid volunteer).

If you want to make a tax-deductible donation via ANF to support the work of the Independent, click here.

As news organizations evolve and attempt to survive and even grow during these … uh, interesting times, we’re doing all we can to diversify our sources of income—and I’m grateful that ANF is able to help us (and dozens of other journalism outlets doing amazing work in their communities) receive grants and tax-deductible donations.

Have any questions? Hit reply, and ask away!

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• This ProPublica headline is chilling: “The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE.” The lede: “The Internal Revenue Service is building a computer program that would give deportation officers unprecedented access to confidential tax data. ProPublica has obtained a blueprint of the system, which would create an ‘on demand’ process allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain the home addresses of people it’s seeking to deport. Last month, in a previously undisclosed dispute, the acting general counsel at the IRS, Andrew De Mello, refused to turn over the addresses of 7.3 million taxpayers sought by ICE. In an email obtained by ProPublica, De Mello said he had identified multiple legal ‘deficiencies’ in the agency’s request. Two days later, on June 27, De Mello was forced out of his job, people familiar with the dispute said.”

• Equally chilling: ICE is also getting access to Medicaid records. The Los Angeles Times reports: “The Trump administration is forging ahead with a plan that is sure to fuel alarm across California’s immigrant communities: handing over the personal data of millions of Medicaid recipients to federal immigration officials who seek to track down people living in the U.S. illegally. The huge trove of private information, which includes home addresses, social security numbers and ethnicities of 79 million Medicaid enrollees, will allow officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement greater latitude to locate immigrants they suspect are undocumented, according to an agreement signed this week between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by the Associated Press. ‘ICE will use the CMS data to allow ICE to receive identity and location information on aliens identified by ICE,’ the agreement says.” Ugh.

• The Trump administration is asking for data from—and access to—state voting systems across the country. Voting officials, both Democrats and Republicans, find the request concerning. The Washington Post says: “The Trump administration and its allies have launched a multipronged effort to gather data on voters and inspect voting equipment, sparking concern among local and state election officials about federal interference ahead of the 2026 midterms. The most unusual activity is happening in Colorado—a state that then-candidate Donald Trump lost by 11 points—where a well-connected consultant who says he is working with the White House is asking county clerks whether they will allow the federal government or a third party to physically examine their election equipment. Federal agencies have long offered technical assistance and cybersecurity advice to election officials but have not examined their equipment because election laws tightly limit who has access. Separately, the Justice Department has taken the unusual step of asking at least nine states for copies of their voter rolls, and at least two have turned them over, according to state officials.”

• You will soon be paying more for tomatoes. Time magazine reports: “Mexican tomatoes are immediately being slapped with a 17% tariff, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce said on July 14, announcing it was withdrawing from a 2019 agreement that suspended tariffs on tomatoes imported from Mexico. That could affect a lot of grocery store tomatoes. Although the fruit—or vegetable, depending on who you ask—is also grown in Florida, about 70% of fresh tomatoes consumed in the U.S. are imported, and the majority come from Mexico, says David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University. … ‘This is one of the most widely consumed fruits or vegetables in the U.S., and it’s important to put it in the context of consumers’ experience with food prices over the past few years,’ Ortega says. ‘They’re stretched thin, and even a few cents adds up, especially for low-income households.’” (Side note: It’s odd that Time mentioned that tomatoes are grown in Florida, but didn’t mention California, since California produces a LOT more tomatoes than Florida.)

• You’ve likely heard about Trump’s efforts to defund all sorts of things—including public media (which will harm rural areas most). But thanks to NPR—yes, a public media outlet—we now know he’s also defunding efforts to decrease fentanyl overdoses. Yes, really. The details: “The Trump administration has delayed and may cancel roughly $140 million in grants to fund fentanyl overdose response efforts, according to four staff members with close knowledge of the process at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The staffers shared detailed information with NPR about the funding disruption and potential cuts on the condition of anonymity, saying they don’t have permission to speak publicly about their concerns and feared retribution from the Trump administration if identified. ‘These are lives at stake,’ said one CDC staffer, who has a role administering the addiction grant program, known as the Overdose Data To Action program, often referred to as OD2A. ‘The announcement (of delays) alone could trigger layoffs and program shutdowns. It could really start a chain reaction that’s hard to come back from,’ the CDC staffer said.”

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … deodorant! CBS News says: “Some Power Stick deodorants manufactured by A.P. Deauville are under recall for manufacturing defects, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The recall impacts more than 67,000 cases of roll-on deodorants that were sold nationally, a notice posted by the agency shows. The issue is related to deviations with ‘current good manufacturing practices,’ a set of guidelines for pharmaceutical manufacturing, although the recall notice didn’t specify the issues with the deodorants. Easton, Pennsylvania-based A.P. Deauville didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.”

Support the Independent!

As mentioned above, if you want to make a tax-deductible donation to the Independent via the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, click here. (We can take checks, too!) Of course, we still accept non-tax-deductible payments via our Supporters of the Independent program; click below for more details. Thanks for reading, as always!