Three times now, Congress has approved economic stimulus payments for individual taxpayers to help them through the pandemic—and each time it has purposely excluded a significant number of them.
They are taxpayers without a Social Security number.
A total of 4.4 million people paid $23.6 billion in taxes using an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) as recently as 2015. The Internal Revenue Service issues the ITIN to people who pay taxes and do not have a Social Security number.
While these taxpayers remain anonymous to other branches of government, it is generally accepted that most of them are undocumented immigrants who hold jobs.
Michael Zona, a spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., that ITIN taxpayers were excluded to prevent undocumented immigrants from qualifying for a taxpayer-funded program.
Supporters of stimulus relief for ITIN taxpayers said that makes no sense.
“If somebody is working and paying taxes—contributing to our tax base — they should be able to avail themselves of the relief that Congress is offering to millions of Americans,” said Jorge Loweree, policy director of the American Immigration Council.
“It is just and necessary for these families that pay taxes to receive the stimulus aid being provided,” agreed Alba Sanchez, who works in Charlotte for the Latin American Coalition. “I believe that is the just way to act towards our community.”
Two members of the U.S. House who represent Charlotte — Democrat Alma Adams and Republican Dan Bishop — did not respond to requests for an interview about this story.
In 2018, the Charlotte metro area was home to an estimated of 91,000 undocumented immigrants, according to Nan Wu, deputy director of quantitative research at New American Economy. The bipartisan research organization advocates for immigration policies that help grow the economy.
These workers wielded $3.7 billion in spending power in 2017 after paying $867.1 million in federal taxes and $398.7 million in state and local taxes, according to the organization’s research.
“Not only will the families of these undocumented immigrants suffer because of the lack of economic support during this economic crisis, but the local economy will also suffer, as a result,” Wu said.
Immigrants are employed as carpenters, maids and housekeepers, painters and paperhangers, cooks, software developers, managers, computer programmers, food prep workers, janitors, and construction laborers, the report says.
The nature of many of these jobs have made immigrants frontline workers during the pandemic.
Not all individuals filing with ITINs are undocumented. Other categories include: foreign students who work in the United States, dependents or spouses of a U.S. citizen who do not have citizenship, dependents or spouses of foreign nationals on a temporary visa and non-resident foreign nationals who own or invest in a U.S. business and receive taxable income from it.
Sanchez of Charlotte’s Latin American Coalition said the pandemic has hit the Latin community especially hard. Many have lost their jobs or contracted the virus. In some cases, they have been unable to pay their bills or even buy food, she said.
“The lack of aid to the immigrant Latin community is unfair and ungrateful towards a community that works very hard and has given so much for this country,” Sanchez said.
Cristina Cabrera Barrientos
Cristina Cabrera Barrientos of Charlotte is a student in the James L. Knight School of Communication, which provides the Queens University News Service in support of local community news.
