As I See It

Leave it to one of those hasty scripts for a law that would allow illegal immigrants to cash in on the new stimulus package rebates.  Your congress at work.  It’s not their money, so what’s the big deal?  The zeal of getting something going quickly to stimulate the economy that they think needs an outside boost that only Washington could do, leaves a loophole in the law that would have sent the rebate checks out to millions of people here illegally.  It sure is a strange way for Congress to work doing their job of looking after Americans interests.

But there is hope that the script can be changed in time.

But late Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee was scrambling to fix the problem _ contained in the House bill _ by only allowing taxpayers using legitimate Social Security numbers to receive rebates.

The text of the House passed bill contains language making “non resident aliens” _ illegal immigrants _ ineligible for the tax rebates. But every year, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants use individual taxpayer identification numbers, known as ITINs, to file income tax returns with the IRS. These ID numbers are used instead of Social Security numbers. There are no exact statistics for how many illegal immigrants file tax returns, but this New York Times story from last year details the significant increase in use of ITINs.  This story also lays out the issue.   Lou Dobbs Alert.

All of this snafu brings up another element of how our government works at making further messes.  

“Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative organization, says the problem is not with the economic stimulus bill but with the lack of coordination between the IRS and immigration enforcement agencies.

“If the IRS was cooperating with Social Security or DHS [Homeland Security] … they would know who the illegal immigrants are who file tax returns,” Krikorian said.”

And to hear that a big chunk of the American people think it would be a good idea to turn their health care over to the whims of Washington lawmakers and bureaucrats for regulation, oversight, and coordination.  Ha.  Truly amazing. 

See also Michelle Malkin:  Stimulating tax rebates for illegal aliens

As I see It.

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