GOP targets child tax break for illegal immigrants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are looking to deny child tax credits to illegal immigrants, refund checks averaging $1,800 a family, in an effort that has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democratic lawmakers.

The proposal, which would require people who claim the federal credit to have Social Security numbers to prove they are working legally, is being offered as a way to help pay for extending theSocial Security tax cut for most American wage-earners. It would trim federal spending by about $10 billion over a decade.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the proposal unfairly goes after the children of poor Hispanic workers. Such kids often are U.S. citizens, even when their parents are not, because they were born in this country.

Says Leticia Miranda, senior policy adviser of the Latino rights organization National Council of La Raza: “People who are making close to the minimum wage and are raising children in this country — and we’re asking them to pay for the payroll tax cut?” She says, “It’s outrageous and it’s crazy.”

Illegal immigrants have been barred from other refundable tax credits — in which low-income workers not only don’t owe income taxes but receive payments from the government — such as the earned income tax credit. Such credits are a popular anti-poverty tool in part because a recipient has to hold a job to receive the benefit.

Illegal Aliens Eligible for Social Security Benefits

 Published February 20, 2003
SSI, or Supplemental Security Income, is a federal cash benefit program for persons 65 or older, or those who are blind or have a disability. SSI payments are generally unavailable to most people already receiving Social Security benefits, though an individual may be able to receive both if combined household income and resources fall within the SSI limits. Besides cash payments, persons who are eligible for SSI are automatically eligible for most state-administered Medicaid programs. 

SSI is funded through the payroll taxes of Americans. But you don’t have to be an American to receive SSI payments. Like food stamps, Medicaid and almost every other form of social insurance that America has developed to help its citizens, SSI is targeted by people from other countries as a tool to materially improve their lives without work. 

The 1996 Welfare Reform Act may have erected barriers to a non-citizen’s eligibility for SSI, but it did not come close to ending it. The very group Congress sought to make ineligible for SSI, people who may have entered the U.S. illegally but through a series of happy accidents permanently reside here under color of law (“PRUCOL” aliens), has been able to hold on to SSI eligibility through a combination of lawyering and lobbying. 

“PRUCOL” aliens are people who have either entered the U.S. illegally or who have overstayed their visa, but who the INS has decided not to remove from the U.S. One may wonder how it is possible for the INS to know that an alien is in the U.S. illegally and make an affirmative decision to not remove that person, but built into the Immigration and Nationality Act is an “escape hatch” that permits any immigration judge to indefinitely withhold an order of removal for any alien whose removal from the U.S. would create great hardship. Though that person will probably never have legal immigration status, he is entitled to several forms of public assistance.The Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration

“We have rules about tax credits and benefits, and it seems to me they need to be applied fairly and across the board,” said Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is facing a difficult re-election bid in Missouri. “If there are rules, they need to be enforced. I think it’s just that simple. I don’t think it’s complicated.”

“Although the law prohibits aliens residing without authorization in the United States from receiving most federal public benefits, an increasing number of these individuals are filing tax returns claiming this refundable credit,” Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, said when the House debated the payroll tax cut measure in December. “Illegal immigrants bilked $4.2 billion from the U.S. taxpayers (in 2010). I think that it’s time that we fixed it.”see source for more

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