Vitter Introduces Legislation to Stop Illegal Immigrants from Receiving Obamacare, Tuition Tax Credits

Press Release

U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.) today introduced a package of bills to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving healthcare subsides through Obamacare and higher education tax credits.

"Illegal immigrants absolutely should not be benefitting from American taxpayers through Obamacare or our higher education tax credits," Vitter said. "We need to actually enforce our immigration laws and take away any incentives to live here illegally."

The Stopping Illegal Obamacare Subsidies Act is a much needed response to a June 2014 report from the non-partisan Inspector General (IG) which found over one million Obamacare applications with problems related to an individual's citizenship and legal status have gone unresolved. Vitter's bill would stop the Obama administration's plans to automatically enroll these potentially illegal immigrants for 2015, and eliminates these illegal Obamacare subsidies by prohibiting taxpayer funded financial assistance for individuals whose self-attested personal information, including social security numbers, citizenship, and legal status are inconsistent with federal data sources.

The Education Tax Fraud Prevention Act would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving higher education tax credits by requiring anyone claiming a higher education tax credit to include a valid social security number on their tax returns. It would also require educational institutions to provide employer identification numbers to ensure students are using the credit towards a degree at an eligible institution.

Vitter has previously introduced legislation to prevent illegal immigrants from claiming the Child Tax Credit intended for American citizens and legal residents by closing a loophole with the Internal Revenue System.

Source