This is how it works. The Center for Immigration Studies makes a bullshit report [sic] pretending to get data from a legitimate source but misstating the fact. Then a yahoo like Edwin Rubenstein cites the CIS report as fact in one of his bullshit reports [sic]. Then people can cite Rubenstein's reports and pretend it's fact. The only way to check the actual data is to carefully analyze Rubenstein's claims and carefully analyze his sources. It takes a lot of work so most people don't challenge it.
Someone named Jeff Stewart writes a column dated April
16, 2014 available exclusively on the VDare website entitled “Tax Day:
Americans Pay—Illegal Aliens Get Fraudulent Refunds”. The article claims that illegal aliens
fraudulently receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit (“EITC”) is widespread and,
in fact, that a lot of “thieving” is perpetrated by illegal aliens with respect
to the EITC. Stewart claims that 40
percent of illegal aliens use the program (i.e. EITC). While Stewart provides no evidence of his own
to support these claims, he does link to other reports.
One of the reports that Stewart links to is a Center for
Immigration Studies (“CIS”) report dated April 2011 entitled “Welfare Use by
Immigrant Households with Children”.
This link appears after the claim that illegal aliens do “much of the
thieving” with respect to the EITC. But
the link doesn’t provide any support for that claim at all. A section of this report includes a graph
showing that a certain percentage of households are “eligible” for the
EITC. A figure is given for native
households (29%), all immigrant households (44%) and Hispanic immigrant
households (59%).
A note indicates that this graph does not measure the use
of EITC. It only measures eligibility.
The source of the information comes from the 2009 Census Bureau Current
Population Survey. So basically,
Stewart’s first link does not support his claim that illegal aliens are “doing
much of the thieving”. His link doesn’t
address illegal aliens’ use of EITC at all.
Stewart’s next link is a 2001 (not a typo) report
from Steven Camarota of CIS. Stewart
claims that Camarota found [sic] that 40 percent of illegal aliens use the
EITC.
This report from Camarota actually claims
that 49% of Mexican immigrants are eligible to receive the EITC. It doesn’t
even address the immigration status of the people. The estimate is taken from the 2000 [sic]
Census. The Census estimated use of the program by income and number of
dependents in the household. The Census does not ask for immigration status and
the fact that many Mexican immigrants are illegal aliens and therefore not
eligible for the EITC was not taken into consideration in calculating the
estimate. There is no evidence in
Stewart’s link to support his claim that 40% of illegal aliens use the EITC.
A third link that Stewart provides is associated
with his claim that other analysts [sic] have found “rampant” abuse of the EITC
by illegal aliens. The link he provides
is to Edwin Rubenstein’s 2009 article entitled “The EITC and Illegal
Aliens”. Rubeinstein claims that illegal
aliens are among the chief beneficiaries of the EITC. Like Rubeinstein’s subsequent report and a
2004 article on the subject, Rubenstein’s report falls short of substantiating
Rubeinstein’s and Stewart’s claims.
Rubeinstein’s primary support for this is the 2001 Camarota report
previously mentioned.
So at the end of the day, Jeff Stewart has
provided absolutely no evidence to support his claims about the use of EITC by
illegal aliens.
Other more reputable analysts argue that the
majority of EITC overpayments are NOT a result of fraud on behalf of illegal
aliens.
According to a February, 2011, report
released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), more
improper payments seem to be a result of questionable child eligibility than
the use of fraudulent social security numbers by illegal aliens. A
recommendation to ensure that individuals have a valid Social Security Number
is estimated by the TIGTA report to save only $1.1 billion over five years. Another recommendation to ensure that
taxpayers comply with the law governing child eligibility is estimated to save
$5.6 billion.
A report by the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities explains that EITC errors occur primarily because of the complexity
of the rules surrounding the credit. Most of the errors are mistakes, not
fraud. EITC overpayments sometimes can result from the complexity of the
EITC. One example is provided involves divorced parents both claiming the
same child as a dependent to get the EITC.
