New Hampshire GOP Senator Kelly Ayotte is still trying to punish little DREAMers — following the path of Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
Last month, Ayotte tried to attach an amendment to an extension of unemployment benefits, proposing to offset the unemployment insurance extension by eliminating the child tax credit for certain immigrant families.
That didn’t work. But, Ayotte is at it again, trying another tactic. She plans to offer her anti-DREAMer legislation to a bill to prevent cuts to military pensions:
Ayotte has introduced a bill to withhold the child tax credit from children without Social Security numbers, something people here without legal status aren’t supposed to have.
Ayotte said late Monday she would offer it as an amendment to a Democratic bill to restore some of the $6 billion in funding for military pensions that Congress agreed to cut by slowing down cost of living adjustments for working age military retirees.
Ayotte’s move is right out of the playbook of one of the Senate’s leading anti-immigrant voices: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R-AL). He proposed similar language during the Judiciary Committee’s markup of S. 744 last year.
First Focus succinctly laid out the problems with Ayotte’s proposal:
Here are the facts about the Ayotte proposal to deny DREAMers the refundable Child Tax Credit:
- It would harm 1 million children who grew up in the United States and consider America home
- It would harm the youngest DREAMers, the very population both parties have sought to protect
- It would take an average of $1,800 out of the pockets of low-income families that pay their taxes
- It would drive more children into poverty at a time when child poverty is already at the highest level in decades
The facts are clear. A vote for this proposal is a vote to harm children.
We keep hearing that Republicans want better relationships with Latinos. And, last year, Ayotte voted for the Senate immigration reform bill. But, now, she is specifically targeting DREAMers with her proposal on the child tax credit. It seems particularly vindictive to punish the very people she wanted to make citizens last year.
