Conservatives blast bipartisan tax deal for allowing illegal immigrants to claim Child Tax Credit

Conservatives are advocating for changing the Child Tax Credit expansion in the bipartisan tax deal that advanced out of the House Ways and Means Committee, seeking a provision that would prohibit illegal immigrants from claiming the tax benefit.

This legislation, as it stands, would increase the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 to $3,600 but it continues the existing policy of permitting illegal immigrants who file tax returns with tax identification numbers to collect the Child Tax Credit for their children.

The expansion is part of the Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., tax legislation that is moving through Congress after being passed by the House Ways and Means Committee last week.

“The American people are telling us that they’re sick of this wide-open border, and the bill’s eligibility expansion just increases rate and speed at which the tax dollars of hard-working Americans Citizens are going to individuals here illegally,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus in a statement to Just the News on Thursday. 

"That’s absolutely something that should be a red line for every single Republican – there should not be one Republican willing to vote for that," he added.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, also said allowing illegal immigrants to collect the Child Tax Credit is a "real problem that we’re concerned about given the current dynamic and what’s going on at the border.”

A GOP congressional source who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to make public policy statements told Just the News that he thinks it's the wrong move for Congress to turn the Child Tax Credit into a welfare-style program that can be collected even if an individual owes nothing in federal taxes and does not work.