Wall Street Journal
By Sara Murray
June 12, 2013
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio joined forces with Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch Wednesday to offer a handful of immigration amendments on taxes and benefits that could irritate colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
In a series of four amendments, the two Republican senators require illegal immigrants to pay back taxes, curb immigrants’ ability to access health-care tax credits and subsidies and limit immigrants’ access to Social Security retirement benefits.
“The purpose of this immigration bill cannot and should not be to provide as many immigrants as possible with as many government benefits as possible,” Mr. Rubio said in a statement.
Mr. Hatch has held back his support for the immigration bill unless certain amendments he’s pushing for are adopted. In a statement Wednesday, Mr. Hatch said if his amendments were adopted it would “go a long way to garner broader support from across America and throughout the Senate for this legislation.”
Getting Mr. Rubio’s buy-in could put Mr. Hatch in a better bargaining position with Democrats. Mr. Rubio is a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight that helped craft the Senate immigration bill.
Democrats in the immigration group, far from enthused by the latest series of amendments, plan to work with Mr. Hatch on the taxes and benefits issues to see if they can reach a compromise, an aide said.
One of the Hatch-Rubio amendments would limit immigrants’ access to health subsidies under President Barack Obama’s health care law. Immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally and go through the legalization process in the Senate bill would be prevented from getting health subsidies for five years after they get legal permanent resident (green card) status.
Federal law currently bans immigrants from getting any means-tested benefits for five years after they get green cards, but the health care law is an exception to that rule.
Another amendment would limit or delay immigrants from collecting Social Security benefits. Workers are eligible for those retirement benefits after they’ve worked for a certain number of quarters. The amendment would prevent immigrants from counting years they worked in the U.S. illegally toward that total. That means that even immigrants who have paid Social Security taxes for years, perhaps using a false Social Security number, may not be eligible to tap those benefits.
Unauthorized immigrants would also be required to pay back taxes before they can gain provisional legal status – the first step in the legalization process – under another Hatch-Rubio amendment.
The problem is, that’s tough to do logistically. Many immigrants who were living in the U.S. illegally may not have paperwork to verify their work history or whether or not they have paid taxes in the past.
Even some Republicans have expressed doubt over whether it’s a feasible requirement.
“I’d like to have people pay any back taxes owed, illegal immigrants, legal residents, U.S. citizens, just make sure it’s practical and you’re collecting more than it costs to enforce it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who helped write the legislation, said recently.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.), another member of the immigration group, also had concerns. “It really is difficult right now to go in assess back taxes,” he said Wednesday. It was more feasible, he said, to wait until immigrants have to renew their provisional status after six years and use that opportunity to ensure they have been paying taxes.
The Hatch-Rubio amendment punts on dealing with the details: It requires the Treasury to issue regulations to figure out the documentation and whether immigrants have satisfied their tax liability.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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