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Newsweek
5 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Child Tax Credit Could Be Stripped From Millions of Children
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A new budget proposal that would impose new restrictions on the federal Child Tax Credit could eliminate the benefit for millions of U.S. citizens or legally resident children, policy experts have said. Proposed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the rule would require both the tax filer and their spouse to have Social Security numbers in order to claim the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for their children. As a result, children with mixed-status parents — for instance, one parent who is a U.S. citizen and another who is not — would lose eligibility for the credit, according to Carl Davis, research director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Policy experts and researchers from the Center for Migration Studies have estimated that around 4.5 million children — primarily in California, Texas, and Florida — could lose access to CTC if the rule changes are implemented. "The proposal now is actually to tighten the eligibility rules even more and to say, 'We basically don't care if the child is a citizen or not — we need every person in the household to be a citizen or otherwise have legal status in order for the credit to be paid out,'" he told CBS News. A new budget proposal that would impose new restrictions on the federal Child Tax Credit could eliminate the benefit for millions of U.S. citizens, policy experts have said. A new budget proposal that would impose new restrictions on the federal Child Tax Credit could eliminate the benefit for millions of U.S. citizens, policy experts have said. GETTY Why It Matters The CTC, first introduced in 1997, offers families up to $2,000 for every eligible child under the age of 17 with a valid Social Security number. Under current rules, only the child's Social Security number is required, not the parents'. The credit is a key tool in reducing child poverty across the U.S., helping families cover essential expenses such as food, clothing, and school supplies. What To Know Under the new Republican legislation, part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, parents would only be eligible to claim the CTC if both the filer and their spouse possess Social Security numbers. The stipulation would bar eligibility for families with undocumented parents or parents on non-working visas, as well as families where only one parent can obtain a Social Security number. Most undocumented migrants are already barred from most federal tax credits. Analysts warn that the policy would largely impact U.S. citizens and legally resident children living with non-citizen parents. In addition to the CTC, the proposal would tie the eligibility requirement to other tax benefits, such as provisions that eliminate taxes on worker tips and overtime pay. Shelby Gonzales, vice president for immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, argued that the bill would "treat children differently based on the immigration status of their parents." Republicans plan to boost the CTC to $2,500 for 2025 through 2028. GOP lawmakers backing the proposal contend that increasing the credit and adjusting it for inflation would provide relief to American families, while the new restrictions would prevent taxpayer benefits from going to households with undocumented members. What People Are Saying House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith said the bill would "increase the Child Tax Credit, the standard deduction and the Death Tax exemption," aiming to restrict access for undocumented immigrants. Carl Davis, research director at ITEP, told CBS News: "We basically don't care if the child is a citizen or not — we need every person in the household to be a citizen or otherwise have legal status in order for the credit to be paid out." George Carrillo, former director of social determinants of health for Oregon and CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council,told Newsweek that the bill "strives to deliver immediate financial relief to many American families," but also "raises concerns about fairness and long-term impact." "Immigration-related provisions restricting access to tax credits disproportionately harm vulnerable communities, while a $4 trillion debt increase raises questions about fiscal responsibility and passing burdens onto future generations," he said. Shelby Gonzales, vice president for immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told CBS News: "It seems to say, if your parents don't meet this criteria regarding their immigration status, then you will be treated differently as a child than all other children in the U.S. who were born of two parents that meet the qualifications." What Happens Next The budget package passed the House by a narrow margin and is under review in the Senate, where some lawmakers have voiced opposition on fiscal grounds. The bill could undergo substantial changes as the legislative process continues.
Time of India
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
US: Republican crackdown on aid to immigrants would hit American citizens
President Donald Trump has vowed to end what he calls the "waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources" by cutting off federal benefits for immigrants living in the country illegally and ensuring that funding goes to American citizens in need. Administration officials have said they would root out "illegal aliens" who are living in federally subsidized housing. The Agriculture Department has ordered states to enhance immigration verification practices used to determine eligibility for food stamps. And House Republicans just passed a tax bill that would limit certain immigrants from accessing Medicaid and Medicare, a popular tax credit for parents, and federal financial aid, among other benefits. The actions amount to an aggressive attempt to curb immigrant families' use of safety-net programs. Although Republicans say they want to remove incentives for people to enter the country illegally, unauthorized immigrants generally do not receive federal benefits given efforts to chip away at their eligibility. Immigration experts and advocates for immigrant rights say the changes would instead largely be felt by children who are US citizens but whose parents are living in the country illegally or immigrants who are authorized to live in the United States, such as refugees and people granted asylum. (Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates) Twelve percent of American children, or about 9 million people, are citizens with at least one noncitizen parent. Children with at least one immigrant parent are twice as likely to live in poverty than those with native-born parents, according to a 2022 report by researchers at the Boston University School of Social Work. Live Events You Might Also Like: U.S. halts new student visa interviews amid plans for social media screening, claims reports "In the name of wanting to take a harsh policy stance against immigrants, in many different ways the reality is that they're going to be punishing citizens and other immigrants that have been eligible in the past," said Shelby Gonzales, vice president for immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. Some of the most substantial changes would come with the tax bill, a centerpiece of Trump's economic agenda that House Republicans narrowly passed Thursday. If approved by the Senate, the package would boost the child tax credit to as much as $2,500, but limit its availability to parents with Social Security numbers. Current law allows children who have Social Security numbers to receive the benefit, even if their parents have only individual taxpayer identification numbers, which are issued to noncitizens for the purpose of paying taxes. The change would make roughly 2 million children with Social Security numbers no longer eligible for the benefit, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation. You Might Also Like: US grant cuts spur foreign recruitment of American scientists Some proponents of the change argue that the child tax credit currently allows immigrants living in the country illegally to benefit from taxpayer money, and that such funding should be shut off even if their children are citizens. "In the real world, the money is going to the unlawful alien parents, and they're not obligated to spend that money on the children," said George Fishman, a senior legal fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favours restricting immigration. Others said the potential changes would undermine the well-being of children who are US citizens in immigrant households. Families where someone doesn't have a Social Security number are already ineligible for the earned-income tax credit, which provides a significant boost to low-income households. Research has found that children who receive similar cash benefits go on to have better health, earn more and commit fewer crimes later in life. "Going forward, they are the adults of this country," said Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, a professor of social work at Boston University who studies immigrants. "Do we want to disinvest in them now so that their education and health and everything deteriorates, and then we have to face that in a few years from now?" The tax bill would also tighten eligibility for federal health insurance programs. Immigrants who are authorized to live in the United States but are not legal permanent residents would no longer qualify for Medicare unless they fall under certain exceptions. The package would also bar those immigrants from receiving subsidized health insurance on marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act. Those changes could affect refugees, immigrants granted asylum and people with temporary protected status. It would also deny access to marketplace plans entirely for people brought to the United States as children who are currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. Some of those immigrants have a path to obtaining a green card, but not all of them do, such as foreigners granted immigration parole or temporary protected status. The tax plan would also trim Medicaid expansion funding by 10 percentage points for states that use their own money to cover low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, which could penalize 14 states that provide health coverage to children regardless of immigration status, according to KFF, a health policy research group. States could choose to stop covering immigrants living in the country illegally, and preserve their federal matching funds. Or they could keep that coverage and take the hit to their federal reimbursement, which would mean less money to go around for US citizens who depend on Medicaid. Research has also found that people who don't have health insurance are more likely to rely on emergency rooms for preventable care. Hospitals must provide emergency care regardless of a patient's immigration status, which they can receive reimbursements for through emergency Medicaid. "So they're going to need to look to other programs, or just cut the funding for undocumented immigrants, which is going to have an impact on everyone in that family, including citizen family members," said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration at the Center for Law and Social Policy. The bill would also end a requirement for states to provide Medicaid benefits to applicants during a grace period in which their immigration or citizenship status is being verified, which could deny coverage to those who don't have easy access to documents such as a passport or birth certificate. And the tax bill would cut off federal tuition assistance and food stamps for nearly all immigrants who are not citizens or permanent residents. Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said he supported efforts to curtail immigrants' access to federal benefits. But he said the changes would not result in major budget savings, given that noncitizens receive just 3.5% of all welfare and entitlements. "The budget deficit cannot be plugged by kicking noncitizens off welfare benefits," Nowrasteh said. "That being said, they should be removed because a dollar saved is a dollar saved, and that's good enough. I'd much rather they kick immigrants off welfare than kick immigrants out of the country." Although the tax bill is still working its way through Congress, many federal agencies are already trying to restrict immigrants living in the country illegally from accessing programs. In March, the Housing and Urban Development Department said it would partner with the Homeland Security Department to ensure that federal housing programs were not benefiting immigrants living in the country illegally over citizens. The Small Business Administration has barred lending to companies with any amount of investment from people without Social Security numbers, constraining credit for American-born entrepreneurs. Many housing authority directors and housing policy experts expect the Trump administration to propose a rule that would ban families with any members living in the country illegally from subsidized housing, even if their children are US citizens and eligible for the benefit. The administration proposed a similar rule during Trump's first term but did not put it in place. The housing department found at the time that doing so could displace 55,000 children who were in the country legally, and that more than 108,000 people receiving assistance lived in a household with at least one undocumented member. "Children in immigrant families, who are often US citizens, would be harmed both by the threat of family separation and the risk that they may become homeless," said Tanya Broder, a senior counsel at the National Immigration Law Center. Other agencies that run benefit programs have reiterated that immigrants living in the country illegally are not permitted to receive funding. The Labor Department sent a letter to states last month warning that they could lose federal funds if they allowed immigrants living in the country illegally to receive unemployment benefits. The Social Security Administration also expressed its "full support" for Trump's efforts to ensure that immigrants living in the country illegally did not receive Social Security benefits. The Trump administration has also put pressure on Democratic states that aid immigrants living in the country illegally, including starting an investigation into a California program that has provided cash assistance to some immigrants and revoking waivers to state colleges and universities that use federal money to provide some services to unauthorized immigrants The effort to target immigrants could create a chilling effect, making people hesitant to enrol for benefits over fears that their family members could be deported if they share their information with the government, said Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. "Even if you're eligible and you can get those benefits, you're also letting the state or agency know that there's an unauthorized immigrant in your household," Lacarte said. "The rhetoric essentially discourages people from using public benefits."
Miami Herald
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Republican Crackdown on Aid to Immigrants Would Hit U.S. Citizens
President Donald Trump has vowed to end what he calls the 'waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources' by cutting off federal benefits for immigrants living in the country illegally and ensuring that funding goes to American citizens in need. Administration officials have said they would root out 'illegal aliens' who are living in federally subsidized housing. The Agriculture Department has ordered states to enhance immigration verification practices used to determine eligibility for food stamps. And House Republicans just passed a tax bill that would limit certain immigrants from accessing Medicaid and Medicare, a popular tax credit for parents, and federal financial aid, among other benefits. The actions amount to an aggressive attempt to curb immigrant families' use of safety-net programs. Although Republicans say they want to remove incentives for people to enter the country illegally, unauthorized immigrants generally do not receive federal benefits given efforts to chip away at their eligibility. Immigration experts and advocates for immigrant rights say the changes would instead largely be felt by children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are living in the country illegally or immigrants who are authorized to live in the United States, such as refugees and people granted asylum. Twelve percent of American children, or about 9 million people, are citizens with at least one noncitizen parent. Children with at least one immigrant parent are twice as likely to live in poverty than those with native-born parents, according to a 2022 report by researchers at the Boston University School of Social Work. 'In the name of wanting to take a harsh policy stance against immigrants, in many different ways the reality is that they're going to be punishing citizens and other immigrants that have been eligible in the past,' said Shelby Gonzales, vice president for immigration policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. Some of the most substantial changes would come with the tax bill, a centerpiece of Trump's economic agenda that House Republicans narrowly passed Thursday. If approved by the Senate, the package would boost the child tax credit to as much as $2,500, but limit its availability to parents with Social Security numbers. Current law allows children who have Social Security numbers to receive the benefit, even if their parents have only individual taxpayer identification numbers, which are issued to noncitizens for the purpose of paying taxes. The change would make roughly 2 million children with Social Security numbers no longer eligible for the benefit, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation. Some proponents of the change argue that the child tax credit currently allows immigrants living in the country illegally to benefit from taxpayer money, and that such funding should be shut off even if their children are citizens. 'In the real world, the money is going to the unlawful alien parents, and they're not obligated to spend that money on the children,' said George Fishman, a senior legal fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors restricting immigration. Others said the potential changes would undermine the well-being of children who are U.S. citizens in immigrant households. Families where someone doesn't have a Social Security number are already ineligible for the earned-income tax credit, which provides a significant boost to low-income households. Research has found that children who receive similar cash benefits go on to have better health, earn more and commit fewer crimes later in life. 'Going forward, they are the adults of this country,' said Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, a professor of social work at Boston University who studies immigrants. 'Do we want to disinvest in them now so that their education and health and everything deteriorates, and then we have to face that in a few years from now?' The tax bill would also tighten eligibility for federal health insurance programs. Immigrants who are authorized to live in the United States but are not legal permanent residents would no longer qualify for Medicare unless they fall under certain exceptions. The package would also bar those immigrants from receiving subsidized health insurance on marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act. Those changes could affect refugees, immigrants granted asylum and people with temporary protected status. It would also deny access to marketplace plans entirely for people brought to the United States as children who are currently protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. Some of those immigrants have a path to obtaining a green card, but not all of them do, such as foreigners granted immigration parole or temporary protected status. The tax plan would also trim Medicaid expansion funding by 10 percentage points for states that use their own money to cover low-income immigrants living in the country illegally, which could penalize 14 states that provide health coverage to children regardless of immigration status, according to KFF, a health policy research group. States could choose to stop covering immigrants living in the country illegally, and preserve their federal matching funds. Or they could keep that coverage and take the hit to their federal reimbursement, which would mean less money to go around for U.S. citizens who depend on Medicaid. Research has also found that people who don't have health insurance are more likely to rely on emergency rooms for preventable care. Hospitals must provide emergency care regardless of a patient's immigration status, which they can receive reimbursements for through emergency Medicaid. 'So they're going to need to look to other programs, or just cut the funding for undocumented immigrants, which is going to have an impact on everyone in that family, including citizen family members,' said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration at the Center for Law and Social Policy. The bill would also end a requirement for states to provide Medicaid benefits to applicants during a grace period in which their immigration or citizenship status is being verified, which could deny coverage to those who don't have easy access to documents such as a passport or birth certificate. And the tax bill would cut off federal tuition assistance and food stamps for nearly all immigrants who are not citizens or permanent residents. Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said he supported efforts to curtail immigrants' access to federal benefits. But he said the changes would not result in major budget savings, given that noncitizens receive just 3.5% of all welfare and entitlements. 'The budget deficit cannot be plugged by kicking noncitizens off welfare benefits,' Nowrasteh said. 'That being said, they should be removed because a dollar saved is a dollar saved, and that's good enough. I'd much rather they kick immigrants off welfare than kick immigrants out of the country.' Although the tax bill is still working its way through Congress, many federal agencies are already trying to restrict immigrants living in the country illegally from accessing programs. In March, the Housing and Urban Development Department said it would partner with the Homeland Security Department to ensure that federal housing programs were not benefiting immigrants living in the country illegally over citizens. The Small Business Administration has barred lending to companies with any amount of investment from people without Social Security numbers, constraining credit for American-born entrepreneurs. Many housing authority directors and housing policy experts expect the Trump administration to propose a rule that would ban families with any members living in the country illegally from subsidized housing, even if their children are U.S. citizens and eligible for the benefit. The administration proposed a similar rule during Trump's first term but did not put it in place. The housing department found at the time that doing so could displace 55,000 children who were in the country legally, and that more than 108,000 people receiving assistance lived in a household with at least one undocumented member. 'Children in immigrant families, who are often U.S. citizens, would be harmed both by the threat of family separation and the risk that they may become homeless,' said Tanya Broder, a senior counsel at the National Immigration Law Center. Other agencies that run benefit programs have reiterated that immigrants living in the country illegally are not permitted to receive funding. The Labor Department sent a letter to states last month warning that they could lose federal funds if they allowed immigrants living in the country illegally to receive unemployment benefits. The Social Security Administration also expressed its 'full support' for Trump's efforts to ensure that immigrants living in the country illegally did not receive Social Security benefits. The Trump administration has also put pressure on Democratic states that aid immigrants living in the country illegally, including starting an investigation into a California program that has provided cash assistance to some immigrants and revoking waivers to state colleges and universities that use federal money to provide some services to unauthorized immigrants The effort to target immigrants could create a chilling effect, making people hesitant to enroll for benefits over fears that their family members could be deported if they share their information with the government, said Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. 'Even if you're eligible and you can get those benefits, you're also letting the state or agency know that there's an unauthorized immigrant in your household,' Lacarte said. 'The rhetoric essentially discourages people from using public benefits.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
