Washington D.C., June 26th, 2020—Yesterday, Senators Marco Rubio and Thom Tillis and Representative Mario Diaz-Balart introduced bills that would provide a partial fix for the millions of families who were left out of the CARES Act stimulus payments simply because one parent in the household files their taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

The American Citizen Coronavirus Relief Act and the Economic Impact Payment Fairness Act would allow spouses of ITIN filers who have a Social Security Number (SSN) to receive economic stimulus payments and to claim credits for their eligible children. However, the bills continue to exclude families where neither parent has an SSN, leaving millions of U.S. citizen children  without financial relief.

Olivia Golden, Executive Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) issued the following statement:

“We are grateful to Senators Rubio and Tillis and Representative Diaz-Balart for taking this important first step to address the harmful exclusion of immigrant families from cash relief in previous COVID-19 legislation. However, we remain deeply concerned that under these bills millions of U.S. citizen children will continue to be denied much-needed assistance at great risk to their overall development, simply because of their parent’s immigration status.

Children of immigrants are a quarter of the U.S. child population, and their well-being is integral to our country’s future. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we are all deeply connected, and the only way we are going to come out of the crisis a stronger nation is if we ensure every member of our community has access to the assistance they need. Immigrant workers have been critical in our fight against COVID-19, and they must be able to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads. We urge Congress to ensure that all our children—including children living in mixed-status immigrant families—have access to the financial relief they need to weather the storm.”