The Republican tax reform package agreed upon by House and Senate lawmakers contains language allowing illegal immigrants with American citizen children to get a tax credit.
The final GOP tax bill doubles the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 and increases the amount of the refundable child tax credit to $1,400. This policy change geared towards helping working class families was pushed by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
The conference bill includes language from the Senate tax plan that allowed parents of so-called “anchor babies” to receive the tax credit.
“In order to receive the child tax credit (i.e., both the refundable and non-refundable portion), a taxpayer must include a Social Security number for each qualifying child for whom the credit is claimed on the tax return,” the bill states.
Jan Ting, a professor of law at Temple University, wrote an analysis recently about the Senate bill’s language.
“Because of birthright citizenship, any children born to illegal aliens become automatic U.S. citizens. Thus, illegal aliens can still receive billions of dollars in tax credits for their U.S.-born children,” Ting wrote in a post on the Center for Immigration Studies website.
Existing law allows taxpayers with a Taxpayer Identification Number to get a refundable tax credit, which many illegal immigrants reportedly have.
The original House Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a reform that wouldn’t have allowed illegal immigrants to get the child tax credit. It said refundable credits are only available if the “taxpayer includes the taxpayer’s Social Security number on the return of tax for such taxable year.”
“The House bill requires a SSN in order to claim the child tax credit. Members will work to address this in conference to protect against fraud in this credit,” a House Ways and Means spokesperson told Breitbart News over a week before the conference bill was agreed upon.
President Trump is supportive of the final GOP tax bill, and a White House spokeswoman did not return a press inquiry Saturday about the provision helping illegal immigrants.
