Democrats want illegal immigrants to receive coronavirus stimulus checks
By: Nicholas Ballasy
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A group of Democratic lawmakers is advocating for undocumented immigrants to qualify for direct cash assistance due to coronavirus.
The $2.2 trillion CARES Act, in its current form, does not allow individuals who filed taxes for 2018 or 2019 using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) to qualify for a stimulus check. Many undocumented immigrants use an ITIN to file income taxes in place of a Social Security number.
Reps. Raúl Grijalva (Arizona), Lou Correa and Judy Chu (both from California) have introduced the Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act , which would amend the coronavirus stimulus bill to allow every taxpayer to receive a $1,200 stimulus check, including undocumented immigrants who filed taxes with an ITIN. Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland) formally joined the bill as a co-sponsor on Sunday.
"COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate. It impacts all communities and people of all backgrounds. Our relief programs shouldn’t discriminate against those who need help during this crisis, and this legislation ensures that immigrants with ITINs can get the economic relief they deserve," Grijalva said in a statement.
To support her position on stimulus checks, Chu said coronavirus "does not care" about an individual's immigration status.
“The CARES Act is meant to help our whole economy survive this crisis. You cannot do that by excluding entire segments of the population. This virus does not care about immigration status," she said.
"Making it impossible for them to receive the same benefit we are sending to everyone else just means those immigrants will have a harder time affording food or rent, and that leaves us all worse off. I hope to see this corrected in the next relief package,” Chu added.
Correa said that "every individual taxpayer, irrespective of citizenship status, needs government assistance now.”
According to Raskin's office, other Democratic lawmakers who signed on as co-sponsors of the bill include Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Alce Hastings of Florida and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
Tags
Who is online
458 visitors
About 20 million dependable votes may be at stake
What an insult to American Citizens
Seems to be the "Democrat Creed" !
Everything "But" !
Just two letters for this insulting travesty to the taxpaying citizens and legal residents of this country. BS!
As a lifelong resident of the state of Arizona, I have found that Raul Grijalva is another career politician homesteading in DC while pandering to a small percentage of special interest groups and he is generally not well liked in Arizona out side the district he represents. If there was ever a reason for term limits, Raul Grijalva is Arizona's liberal poster child. He would rather see illegals get full benefits over American citizens and legal residents.
Aren't we told constantly that illegal immigrants do the jobs "no one else" will? That being the case, I know that a LOT of them are employed at food processing plants, construction, fields of produce, hospitality/cleaning in motel/hotels etc. Are these not "essential" jobs for the most part? Therefore it stands to reason that they are indeed working and not missing a paycheck. I'm probably off but from what I've read, they are not eligible if they file with ITIN numbers..............so far anyway. We shall see how this pans out I guess.
The argument is valid that illegal immigrants should receive relief, like everyone else living in the United States. They are in the same boat and will suffer like the rest.
Political Washington created the immigration mess. Now the political chair polishers want to avoid responsibility and accountability for the mess they created. Don't let a do-nothing Congress get away with shifting blame onto others.
The immigration mess can almost entirely be laid at the feet of the Democrats. They think that any type of border security amounts to racism.
That's simply not true. Republican neo-liberals have been using immigration to privatize profits and socialize cost. Both Republicans and Democrats share responsibility and accountability for the immigration mess.
You obviously do not live anywhere near the border like I do or you would see the fallacy of your statement.
You want a hanky?
No I'm fine, keep it for your use.
Actually, I have to say that in this instance, I don’t care either. Send them a check. They do pay taxes, and they are part of the economy whether we like it or not. It’s the kind thing to do and the economically smarter move.
This kind of thing is not going to spark a mad rush for the border. Besides, we’re already spending a near infinite amount of money anyway. Including checks for this population is going to be a drop in a galactically large bucket.