President. as has been pointed out during this debate. all of the men and women who would become legal residents of the United States under the terms of this legislation are required to pay income tax. like every other worker in America. What the Sessions amendment would do. is really quite extraordinary and grossly unfair. It would arbitrarily deny those immigrants who have become legal residents one of the tax benefits available to every taxpayer under the Internal Revenue Code. That provision is the earnedincome tax credit. a provision designed to reduce the tax burden on lowincome families with children. It is fundamentally wrong to subject immigrant workers to a different. harsher Tax Code than the one that applies to everyone else in the country. An immigrant worker should pay exactly the same income tax that every other worker earning the same pay and supporting the same size family paysno less. no more. We should not be designing a special punitive Tax Code for immigrants that makes them pay more than everyone else. Yet that is exactly what the Sessions amendment seeks to do. The Sessions amendment would result in highly inconsistent treatment of legal immigrant residents and would drastically increase the amount of tax that many of these families had to pay. They would be subject to income and payroll taxes in the same manner as other workers. but would be denied the use of a key element of the Tax Code that is intended to offset the relatively heavy tax burdens that lowincome working families. especially those with children. otherwise would face. Most of the EITC is simply a tax credit for the payment of other taxes. especially regressive payroll taxes.
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