Leave no taxpayer behind
When Washington mailed out $1,200 stimulus checks last month, the money came with a catch. Anyone eligible for the payments carrying President Trump’s Sharpieinscribed signature needed a Social Security number. That proviso meant millions of taxpayers who aren’t registered were out of luck.
The payment system was rushed out for appealing reasons. It was simple and quick to base eligibility on Social Security logs. Those who were signed up, had paid taxes for two years, and met lowend income categories were in line. But there’s a flaw that’s now producing lawsuits and a push to change the rules in a more inclusive way as a second round of direct payments is talked up.
Millions of immigrants, legal or not, don’t qualify for Social Security. Instead, they pay taxes via an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). That category was left off the stimulus check mailing list. In other words, bona fide taxpayers weren’t getting a shot.
The rule gets even more tangled. If one spouse in a family uses a ITIN, then that household doesn’t qualify for the relief checks even if the other breadwinner is duly signed up for Social Security. Minor children, in line for $500 payments, are cut off, too. The money, designed to help those earning $75,000 or less, won’t get to the mixedstatus families who often need it most.
It’s flawed on another level. Undocumented immigrants use the ITIN system with the best of intentions. They pay taxes instead of living in the shadows. By paying up, they’re signaling they want legal status and aren’t evading the law.
Cutting off stimulus checks has a harmful effect on the target group it’s designed to aid. Lowwage earners are already facing the brunt of recordlevel layoffs. Their publicfacing jobs in construction, restaurant and domestic work put them at higher risk of COVID19 infection.
Any talk of more coverage for people here illegally will bring howls from nativists and demagogues. It will take courage and good sense to repair an unfair measure under such conditions.
This population needs the mailedout money as much as anyone. One analysis by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates 15.4 million people may be cut out of the stimulus legislation. Of that figure, 1.5 million are in California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has a role to play along with Washington in repairing the situation. He’s proposed $500 checks for undocumented residents, citing the obvious need to ease the financial pain for a group that doesn’t qualify for conventional jobless programs. But advocacy groups claim the sign up process is producing endless busy signals and bureaucratic confusion.
The governor needs to focus on a promise he’s made.
Washington’s role should be clear as well. Already the lawsuits from immigrant rights groups and others are piling up to challenge the law. A pending stimulus bill that cleared the House last week would correct the situation for those not enrolled in Social Security. That measure goes next to the Republicancontrolled Senate, where leaders are decidedly cool to more spending. They should be willing, though, to fix a flaw that’s harming so many people at a critical time.