The $3 trillion HEROES Act introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi includes coronavirus relief funds for eligible illegal immigrants.
House Democrats introduced their bill Tuesday, which includes $1 trillion for state governments facing revenue shortfalls, $200 billion in hazard pay for healthcare and grocery workers, and a $25 billion bailout for the U.S. Postal Service, among other funds for industries affected by the pandemic.
A provision in the bill would allow people to receive stimulus funds if they file taxes with a Taxpayer Identification Number, which is issued by the IRS to those without a Social Security number. While TIN holders, including unauthorized immigrants, were ineligible to receive funds under the CARES Act passed earlier this year, but the HEROES Act would retroactively provide funds to those using TINs under the CARES Act, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The HEROES Act “pertains to the TIN provision giving illegal aliens access to any new stimulus payments and retroactively providing them with payments from the CARES Act,” said Preston Huennekens, a government relations associate with FAIR.
“FAIR estimates there are 14.3 million illegal aliens, meaning that in the last stimulus alone illegal aliens could have received over $17 billion in direct payments from the federal government,” he added. “This bill provides other relief to illegal aliens outside of the recovery rebates. Take, for instance, the eviction protection for renters. The way the bill is written, illegal aliens also benefit from that protection because it is so broadly written.”
Last month, an Illinois man filed a lawsuit against President Trump and other high-ranking Republicans over a provision in the CARES Act that denied funds to citizens married to immigrants without Social Security numbers. The plaintiff, identified as “John Doe” in the lawsuit, claimed he and the more than 1 million other citizens married to “unauthorized” immigrants were discriminated against “based solely on whom” they “chose to marry.”
Doe said his wife pays taxes using a TIN instead of a Social Security number. The two reportedly file joint taxes but did not receive a stimulus payment from the $2.2 trillion aid package passed in March.
The House Democrats’ legislation also includes $20 million in funding for arts and humanities foundations. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, for example, would both receive $10 million to fund “general operations.” The two endowments, however, have both already received $75 million each in the CARES Act.
Senate Republicans have already voiced discontent with the $3 trillion package, saying they will wait to decide whether more legislation is necessary.
“If we reach a decision, along with the administration to move to another phase, that’ll be the time to interact with the Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday. “But what you’ve seen in the House is not something designed to deal with reality but designed to deal with aspirations. This is not a time for aspirational legislation. This is a time for practical response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
A vote on the legislation is scheduled for Friday.
