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Help immigrants, not smugglers

By Staff | Jul 22, 2021

To the editor:

Checks to anyone who claims children residing as dependents in the U.S. went out July 15. Adding an additional $1 trillion to the national debt annually, the child credit checks were mailed by the IRS last week to all families. Thanks to Marco Rubio these checks come regardless of immigration status. Watch your bank statement or your mailbox carefully if you have children, as the first checks went out July 15. If you have not yet gotten a check, go to your tax preparer, or IRS website. It is the IRS that sends the check. You must only submit a tax return claiming children; even if you claim zero income, to get the check. If you are opposed to increasing the national debt, you can refuse the money.

Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida, insisted the IRS “child credit” include undocumented families for each child smuggled into the country as part of the GOP tax plan. You may remember the timing on this policy change as when children first overwhelmed the southern border. Probably about $10 billion of the $1 trillion annual increase in national debt will go for child credit to the estimated 86 million people living without legal work status in the USA.

The official state reason offered for debt financed handout to those who pay no taxes is a lofty intention: “..taking children out of poverty.” Jeff Bezos, the billionaire; for example, will get checks totaling $3,600 for each of his children. Because he acquires his wealth without working for a salary, there’s no paper trail of income (income can mitigate the amount of the handout). Thus, he pays no taxes, and gets the full allotment. Those immigrants and U.S. citizens who work lawfully under a Social Security number however, can lose out if their wages are deemed “too high.”

The law of consequences suggest Rubio knows he is using taxpayers’ money to debt finance the very child smuggling his party has been pearl clutching about since Biden’s inauguration. This debt-financed child credit for undocumented, initiated by Marco and the Trump gang, has predictably incentivized child smugglers. Price gouging in human smuggling prices in Central America and the Mexican border, suggests the Rand Corporation, are pegged to child credit handout. The first jump in smuggler fees happened when Trump authorized $500 checks for each undocumented children. The smuggler’s rate went up to $1,000.

The New York Post reported Rand estimates that smugglers’ fees jumped to $4,000. in 2017 and doubled again in 2021; coinciding with the Democrat’s insistence that the child credit amount be increased. Far from helping migrant in poverty; it’s seemingly setting the rate for human smugglers. The money handed back to the cartels smuggling into the U.S. is suspiciously pegged at double the amount of the entire tax credit per child.

Clearly the GOP has no problem helping fund this traffic of vulnerable people to work cheaply at Mar-a-lago. What Sen. Rubio has created is a steady supply of vulnerable labor at cheap prices and a reliable government subsidy for their border cartel smugglers.

As we induce child trafficking with paid subsidy we should insist on labor rights, and protection. Otherwise the working poor are in a race to the bottom. Wages and safe working conditions should not be pegged to what a desperate family with a debt to the mob is willing to take as a job offer. Undocumented workers should be allowed to join unions, file complaints and become citizens to protect standards. That could have a far better effect on the mitigation of poverty.

Ellen Starbird

Cape Coral