Sen. Sessions Brings Child Tax Credit Loophole to Senate Floor

Last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) delivered a speech on the Senate floor calling for an end to the Child Tax Care loophole that allows illegal aliens to receive thousands of dollars in tax refunds by filing with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. Sen. Sessions also criticized the administration’s refusal to include mandatory E-Verify provisions in any of its jobs bills.Sen. Sessions mentioned a news report from an Indianapolis news station that highlighted the Child Tax Credit loophole:
The Treasury Department’s own inspector general for Tax Administration, who analyzes problems within the agency and issues reports, reported that in 2010 the Internal Revenue Service paid illegal aliens a staggering $4.2 billion in child tax credits for dependents, a great deal of whom don’t even live in the country. This has been going on for years. This cannot continue. It must be stopped, and fixing it can’t be delayed.

The Treasury IG report states:

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 the Additional Child Tax Credit, a refundable tax credit intended for working families. The payment of Federal funds through this tax benefit appears to provide an additional incentive for aliens to enter, reside, and work in the United States without authorization, which directly contradicts Federal law and policy to remove such incentives.

That is from the inspector general for Tax Administration at the U.S. Treasury Department, not my language. Of course, that is exactly correct. That is exactly correct. How could it be otherwise?

In a press report from Indiana, one of the illegal aliens admitted his address was used to file tax returns by four other undocumented workers who don’t even live there. Those four workers claimed 20 children live inside that one residence, and as a result the Internal Revenue Service sent the illegal immigrants tax refunds totaling $29,608. A tax credit is not a tax deduction, it is a direct payment, a direct transfer of wealth through the tax system to an individual–$29,608.

The Treasury inspector general’s report further stated:

Millions of people are seeking this tax credit who, we believe, are not entitled to it. We have made recommendations to the IRS as to how they could address this issue, and they have not taken sufficient action, in our view, to solve the problem.

Well, that is not acceptable. Now, $4 billion is a great deal of money. Four billion dollars a year is about $10 million a day. They found that $4 billion was doled out to people who received this one benefit illegally. No wonder we have people taking vacations to Las Vegas on the government’s dime. No wonder we are giving $ 1/2 billion loans to failed companies like Solyndra. What are we doing here in Washington?

So I say it is time to end this. I would note that the House of Representatives has voted to end this, and so it is now time to see what this Senate will do. We need to act to end it also.

On the topic of E-Verify, Sen. Sessions recalled something that a Border Patrol agent told GOP Presidential Hopeful Mitt Romney:
The administration has also been resistant to the popular E-Verify
program, never once including it in any of its jobs or economic plans.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, has effectively ended
worksite enforcement operations, meaning employers can continue to hire
illegal workers rather than out-of-work Americans. . . .They [Border Patrol agents] said, when employers are willing to hire people who are here illegally, that’s a magnet, and it draws them in. And sanctuary cities, giving tuition breaks to the kids of illegal aliens ….. those things also have to be stopped. If we want to secure the border, we have to make sure we have a fence, determining where people are, enough agents to oversee it, and turn off that magnet. We can’t talk about amnesty, we cannot give amnesty to those who have come here illegally. You can read Sen. Session’s entire speech on his Senate website.