How would McCain, Hillary, and Obama vote on tax rebates for illegals? Update: Ensign, Baucus agree to bar; Update: Illegal alien home loan sob stories
Update 3:08pm Eastern. Sen. Ensign is addressing the issue right now in the Senate Finance Committee. He says that the Congressional Research Service confirms that the tax rebates would go to illegal aliens as the House bill is currently written. Sen. Baucus says changes will be made to make certain the rebates don’t go to illegal aliens.
Just a reminder, to keep it in perspective: This illegal alien issue is just one small problem with stimulation-palooza. It’s the tip of the icebeg.
Meanwhile, another Fed interest rate cut.
And on a related note, I’ve reported before on the illegal alien home loan scam (see here and here). Now the press is ramping up illegal alien subprime victim sob stories. The presidential candidates in both parties should really be pressed for their views on this:
As an economic slowdown and the subprime mortgage crisis deepen across the United States, Hispanic immigrants are increasingly in danger of losing their jobs and their homes. Both legal and illegal immigrants joined Americans in buying homes they could barely afford when the market spiraled upward and many have been caught with mortgages higher than the value of their homes as prices have slumped in the past year. Just as subprime mortgage payments rose and house prices fell, the economy’s slowdown has hurt the construction sector, which employs large numbers of Hispanics and other immigrants. Unemployment among Hispanics in the United States jumped to 6.3 percent in December, up from 5.7 percent the previous month and well above the national average of 5 percent, U.S. Department of Labor statistics show. And almost half of the mortgage loans in the hands of Hispanics are subprime, making them especially vulnerable to the housing downturn.
***
Sen. John Ensign is currently working on a fix to bar illegal aliens from receiving tax rebates offered under the economic stimulus package speeding through Congress. The bill is being discussed in the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon and is slated for markup.
As I noted earlier today, the bill would apparently allow so-called “Resident Aliens” to receive rebate checks. The Treasury department classifies someone as a “Resident Alien” based on how much time that person has spent in the United States. No proof of legal presence is required. Some GOP aides believe illegal alien deportees who meet that definition could be eligible for rebates sent back to their home countries.
Another House aide sent out this e-mail this afternoon:
Folks – I wanted to make sure you all have the correct information. A number of press reports have suggested the economic growth bill passed by the House on Tuesday contains language would somehow enable illegal immigrants to receive a tax rebate. That is not accurate. The bill includes language similar to the provisions included in the 2001 and 2003 tax relief bills designed specifically to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving benefits. – steel
Here are the facts:
1. The bill includes language similar to the provisions included in the 2001 and 2003 tax relief bills designed specifically to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving benefits. There is no language in the measure that would enable illegal immigrants to receive a tax rebate.
2. Illegal immigrants who steal or fabricate a Social Security number are NOT ELIGIBLE to receive checks under the House bill.
3. An illegal immigrant who files taxes based on stolen or fraudulent information in order to attempt to receive a check under the House bill is committing tax fraud.
The aide also included this fact sheet:
Fact Sheet: Illegal Immigrants & Checks
* The procedures in this agreement are similar to what was done in the tax relief laws of 2001 and 2003.
* Illegal immigrants who steal or fabricate a Social Security number are NOT ELIGIBLE to receive checks under the House bill. As long as a tax return is accompanied by a valid Social Security number, the IRS has no capacity to know whether a given tax return was filed by a citizen, a legal immigrant, or an illegal immigrant. Illegal immigrants, of course, don’t have their own Social Security number, so if they file with the IRS, as the IRS believes very few do, they must take one of the following three routes, any one of which could lead to their being identified as committing fraud, and increasing the likelihood that they will be located and deported.
* They could use someone else’s stolen Social Security number. That is fraud, which the IRS attempts to identify both on a real-time basis and as part of its ongoing enforcement and program integrity efforts.
* They could fabricate a Social Security number. Tax returns accompanied by non-existent Social Security numbers should be rejected as invalid, although much of that enforcement currently occurs through on-going program integrity efforts (as opposed to identifying the error in real-time and flagging the return for further attention). Nevertheless, those who use such fabricated numbers face real risks of being identified as committing tax fraud and facing resulting penalties.
* They could obtain an ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number). ITINs, however, are not valid for work and illegal immigrants who enter the workforce generally do not attempt to use an ITIN either as proof of employability or for the purpose of filing a tax return, because an ITIN on a tax return is a clear indication it was filed by a non-citizen.
Two points in response:
1) There’s no harm in clarifying the language in a proactive, ironclad way to make certain it’s barred by law. Right?
2) We know enough about how understaffed and shortchanged “ongoing enforcement and program integrity efforts” are to know that fraud will happen, it will go undetected or unpunished, and these checks will get into illegal aliens’ hands. We also know that in the land of reality, ITINs are being used by illegal aliens for work, for banking purposes, to obtain driver’s licenses, to obtain home loans, and to file tax returns. Far beyond this tax rebate issue, the widespread ITIN scam needs to be addressed:
Question: How would McCain, Hillary, and Obama vote on an amendment to ban tax rebates for illegal aliens?
Who bets for “Not present?”
See what others have said
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Actually, Obama loves to vote “present”.
Yeah. That’s the joke.
Most illegal aliens don’t file taxes, they claim 7 or 8 dependents to keep withholdings to a minimum and just throw their W-2’s away.
Which is not too far from the truth generally.
From the IRS commissioner’s testimony I linked to:
If the government sends rebates to illegals…..
……arent they then guilty of aiding and abetting illegals(which is against the law)
If these people who break our laws are allowed to benefit (again), it’s ridiculous. I hope this is brought up in the debate, but I don’t have much hope.
yt1300inHtown,
I see it all the time in restaurant. I have had 17 – 20 year olds claim that many dependents. When I tell them that the IRS will want proof when they file they just smile because they don’t intend to file.
I’m sure Senator Senor Juan McCain will join Hillarycita and Obamanito on the Senate floor to cast his “yes to illegals should get tax rebates” vote and to add his stamp of approval to condeming the Attorney General’s failure to call water-boarding illegal.
I would have gotten the joke if there was a
on the end of the line!
Sean fuggin’ Hannity is on the radio right now bowing down to John McCain.
It’s absolutely disgusting. He’s saying well maybe McCain will lead the new modern conservative movement with these new modern priorities.
Today, when Hannity said “Ted Kennedy’s not always wrong”, I felt like I was listening to a man who’s suddenly been indoctrinated by his own sell out.
It’s sickening.
“Ted Kennedy’s not always wrong”?!
“Ted Kennedt’s not always wrong”?!
It sickening.
If McVain weren’t running for president right now, he’d be there, he’d vote in favor of giving illegals the rebates, and would say “f— off” and “this is chickens–t” stuff to anyone who opposed him.
If he were president, he’d push for it as well.
#11 It’s a joke.
Tancredo just put the smack down on McCain , fox news….callin em out on immigration…. ha! hope peeps were listening.
Sean sure got me wound up with an hour of the sellout meme. I had to laugh when a 12 year old girl called and asked if he lost his mind.
How do you spell relief? Rock-ribbed Conservative. And if the GOP loses this election, so be it, but principle will not be lost.
I just saw Tancrado on Fox and he says there are going to be MILLIONS of illegals getting money. He seems to be trying to stop this, but thinks Mc won’t do squat. Much less HR or BH. My gosh I am tired of bailing out people sucking off me as a tax payer. How did we come to the point a few elected in DC can dictate how and what MY money goes to? This country isn’t going to last long with this attitude.
L.
ajmontana #14 Yes he did,I was watching .He said he would NEVER vote for mC cain at the end!!
I gues according to the staffer that the State of Colorado is not eligable for the refund. I say this as here in the Mile High State ITIN’s are an acceptable way of getting work, getting welfare handouts, getting not only home loans but personal signature loans (all of which are being purposely nonpaid). So if ITINs are ot accepatble, Colorado is not eligable.
In a way I am glad. I for one am tired of paying for their education, medical, and welfare.
An Addition:
There has been several investigations into the ITIN scandles here in Denver alone. Where companies are purposely heklping ILLEGALS get theri ITIN filed. SO far the State and Federal governments have ignored it. Seeing how Denver under Hickenlooper is a sanctuarty city and Gov.Bill Ritter favors open boarders. I do not see much geting done about this problem.
PTL for Hannity’s sense of humor
Watch the video I included in the post.
How do I become illegal so I can get all the benefits they get?
petergwynne75 said: #11,
Hannity is just upset that His man (and others on Fox) is out of the race today. They wanted that subway election and it’s not going to happen.
“Unemployment among Hispanics in the United States jumped to 6.3 percent in December, up from 5.7 percent the previous month and well above the national average of 5 percent”
Wait, I thought they were doing all the jobs Americans won’t do? Wouldn’t that make them more easily employed, while “lazy” white folks are sitting on their hands refusing to do honest manual labor? Shouldn’t they have a LOWER unemployment rate than the national average?
Khyris #24, Great point.
Would this be a survey done about “legal resident Hispanics” and Hispanic-Americans, or just anyone who is Hispanic? Doesn’t it make a difference?
The ramping up illegal alien subprime victim sob stories link just goes back to the same post.
Maybe you meant to link to the story I discovered.
I have a suggestion for the illegals that can’t afford the houses they bought here: Go back to Mexico, I’m sure the houses are cheaper there.
It’s too bad that the illegals could not read the loan documents because they
were written in English. Even with Spanish interpretation they may have missed some important information. Ta….I wouldn’t want to have to rely on
someone else’s interpretation of important documents….I would learn the
language. So sorry if things are not working out for lawbreakers who just keep breaking the law by staying here.
LOL TX ROSE #29, I was just going to post this Solution: Learn how to read English or move back to Mexico where they have no mortgage loans
This is what happens when you’re arrogant enough not to try to become a citizen when you break in and don’t learn the common language. You get taken advantage of LMAO!
Might as well let the “stimulus package” die a natural death in the Senate. It’s already had a positive psychological impact on the economy and nobody thinks it will have any real impact anyway.
According to Foxnews, the “stimulus package loophole” that allows some illegal aliens to receive the rebate has been closed in the Senate.
Now if they could just close the border loophole.
The TINs will not qualify for the rebates, according to what I read in the Corner. The problem remains that there are illegal aliens who do have valid SSNs, generally as the result of coming to the U.S. on work visas and overstaying.
OUCH. Scariest thing EVER!
MM on Glenn Beck talking about McCain:
“I mean, he’s Juan Hernandez with a billion dollars.”
whoops, lost half my post? shoulda hit preview…
I don’t get it! ALL of the candidates have a very poor understanding of immigration law and its enforcement. Is this the best the country has to offer? For us Repubs, methinks we’re in trouble.
I always wondered how many people in our country illegally, got sub prime loans? I mean think about it, checking someones Legal Idenity and ability to pay back the loan doesn’t seem to be high on the list of the sub prime loan companys criteria! I am asking is there any statistics to who defaulted and their legal resident standing in the USA.