Democratic budget reconciliation proposals created an expanded child tax credit (CTC) which will pay $10.5 billion in benefits next year to illegal immigrants.
No matter how an immigrant got here or whether their children are U.S. citizens, they are all eligible.
The number includes the approximately 600,000 unaccompanied minors and members of families who were stopped at the border and allowed to stay pending an immigration hearing.
It is not just costly to provide cash welfare to illegal immigrants; it also leads to an increase in more illegal immigrants coming into the United States.
Despite being called a “refundable credit,” the revised CTC, like the old Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) it replaces, provides cash assistance to low-income families who do not pay federal income taxes.
Cash payments under the new program have been significantly increased from $1,400 per child to $3,600 under 6 years of age, and $3,000 between 6 to 17 years of age.
The maximum child payment will be $2,000 after 2022, although advocates hope that these enormous payments can be continued.
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Benefits For Illegal Immigrants With Children
The analysis by Karen Zeigler and Kelsey Ramirez conducted in October deduced that illegal immigrants with children born in the United States would get $8.2 billion in benefits under the CTC.
It is assumed that the new program will require Social Security numbers (SSNs) for dependent children, much like the old ACTC program.
This requirement would be permanently repealed by reconciliation.
Immigrants living in the United States can receive benefits on behalf of their children born in the United States.
When the old ACTC operated, individual taxpayers simply acquired a taxpayer identification number, after which they claimed their money.
Under the old system, only illegal immigrants with U.S.-born children were eligible for payments, since those U.S.-born children had Social Security numbers.
But by eliminating the SSN requirement permanently, the newly expanded credit can be used by illegal immigrants with their children to receive credit.
According to our new estimates, illegal immigrants whose children are also in the country illegally would amass $2.3 billion from the new CTC.
This would result in a total cash payment to immigrant parents amounting to $10.5 billion.
Illegal migrants included in this group as of 2020, are those stopped and then admitted after being released.
There is no connection between these payments and the large cash settlements that the federal government plans on paying to illegal immigrant families separated at the border while President Trump was in office.
Stress-free Payments to Immigrants
Payments will be easier to receive under the new CTC because reconciliation removes the work requirement of the old ACTC in the future.
The past has shown that illegal immigrants have been unable to prove employment income.
Removing the work requirement will now allow these people to receive payments more easily.
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Seventy-eight percent of illegal immigrants with children can expect cash assistance packages with low income averaging $5,300 per family, or about $2,600 per child in 2022.
Putting these numbers into context, the median income in the leading countries of illegal migration, (such as Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador) is $3,000 to $4,000 a year.
Immigrants with no Work are Eligible for Benefits
Cash payments are being offered to virtually everyone who comes to the United States with a child, regardless of whether they work there or not, which is approximately equivalent to what most migrants could earn in a year back in their home country.
As well as increasing taxpayer costs and facilitating illegal immigration, the elimination of the Social Security Number requirement might invite fraud, since taxpayers now only need to submit the date of birth and name of the child.
Additionally, immigrants can choose to indicate or not on their returns that they lived in the United States for half a year.
Before an immigrant parent-child must have an SSN in other for his/her parent to receive the benefit. This requirement has been reversed as a result of the budget reconciliation.
