Tax rebate exclusions draw controversy
As the rebate checks from Uncle Sam continue arriving in mailboxes, a provision limiting the benefit to Social Security cardholders is drawing controversy in California and around the nation.
Though the economic stimulus package was designed to exclude illegal immigrants, the restriction has also disqualified hundreds of thousands of U.S. military personnel, foreign high-tech workers and other U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.
Under the program, if a U.S. citizen filed a joint tax return with a spouse who does not have a Social Security number, neither will receive the money, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
Now a coalition of legal immigrants and advocates is urging legislators to change the rules.
"If we are trying to draw a line to exclude undocumented immigrants, why on earth are we going after military families and the families of U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who are obeying the law?" asked Paul Donnelly, who started a group called Reform the Rebate.
Alvaro Toledo, who lives outside of Sacramento, recently learned that he won't receive the $1,200 he was expecting.
Toledo is a naturalized citizen from Guatemala, but his Peruvian wife is still in the process of becoming a legal permanent resident. Because the couple filed taxes together, Toledo is ineligible.
"I think I am entitled," said Toledo, who earns a little more than $50,000 as a community program specialist and has two children whom he claims as dependents. "I pay my taxes. I am a citizen."
Toledo said he had hoped to use the money to help pay his mortgage.
The checks are part of a $168-billion stimulus package passed by Congress in an attempt to boost spending and help the economy. The government started distributing the money last month. Most taxpayers will receive between $300 and $600, along with $300 per child.
During the congressional debate earlier this year, an anti-illegal immigration group lobbied legislators to ensure that undocumented immigrants would be barred from receiving the rebates.
"To be spending money the government doesn't have to be putting money in the pockets of people who shouldn't be here in the first place is just wrong," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Mehlman, however, said that perhaps there should be an exception for U.S. citizen military personnel who were disqualified based on their foreign spouses.
