Pelosi Suggests Dems Will Push for Stimulus Checks for Families with Illegals in New $3 Trillion Package

The optics are not good for Democrats in an election year.

They consistently appear to be prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens, especially American small business owners.

It may play well to the radicals in their base, but how will this look to independents and swing voters?

The San Francisco Chronicle confirms that Pelosi is pushing for stimulus checks to undocumented immigrants in the new $3 trillion bill:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats want to undo a provision in coronavirus legislation that bars families with mixed immigration status from receiving stimulus payments from the Internal Revenue Service.

“We want to address the mixed-family issue,” the San Francisco Democrat said at her weekly news conference Thursday, without committing to it being part of the next bill the House passes on the pandemic.

At issue are payments up to $2,400 for married couples who file their taxes jointly and $500 each for dependent children. Legislation that Congress passed in March authorizing the payments excludes people who file with an individual taxpayer identification number, which is used by taxpaying undocumented immigrants who do not have Social Security numbers.

That exclusion means that families in which one spouse is a citizen but the other is not, and those in which the parents are undocumented but their children are U.S. citizens, are ineligible for the payments.

Pelosi declined to give specifics on how Democrats would seek to change the provision. She said she is scheduled to have a call Friday with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.

“We have been working to get the tax identification number as a basis for how people would get direct payments,” Pelosi said. “I myself cannot understand why the tax number is not the basis for how some of this money is distributed, so we’ll be making that case.”

The speaker also responded to a question about supporting undocumented immigrants more broadly than the stimulus payments. She said she is pleased that the Federal Reserve is looking at ways to extend lending programs to nonprofits, including those that work with immigrants.

California, which many criticize as being a "sanctuary state," has already set up a $125 million fund to give payments directly to illegal aliens in the state.

Now, Pelosi appears poised to attempt to make this the national standard.

Will the Republicans cave to Pelosi's demands?

Though the first 3 stimulus packages passed with unanimous support, it appears more and more likely that Republicans will oppose this new stimulus proposal.

Of course... while Republicans are being responsible... the media is framing this as an issue of Republicans "only" caring for corporations and old rich white men.

See below:

Fortunately, Republicans are taking their cue from President Trump and are unlikely to approve stimulus checks to illegal aliens.

It's time to put Americans first!

According to KATV and the Associated Press, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the bill as it currently is will be dead on arrival:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday branded House Democrats' $3 trillion economic relief bill a "totally unserious effort" to address the coronavirus pandemic, underscoring the deep election-year gulch over what Congress' next response to the crisis should be.

Two days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled what would be Congress' fifth and largest package for nursing the dormant economy through the emergency, McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats had produced a "seasonal catalog of left-wing oddities and called it a coronavirus relief bill."

Provisions he singled out for criticism included a rollback of GOP-passed tax increases on residents of states with high taxes, language making it easier for people to vote by mail and what he called "the cherry on top" — provisions helping legal marijuana businesses.

"This is a totally unserious effort," he said.

[...]

McConnell has already said he doesn't expect the Senate to begin considering additional legislation until after Memorial Day. He's left the door open to a "narrowly targeted" bill and reiterated Thursday a chief GOP demand — provisions that would protect reopening businesses from liability claims.

Congress has already approved nearly $3 trillion this year to address the twin health and economic crises.

Hopefully Republicans stand strong and refuse to bow to the political and media pressure that Democrats will place on this bill!

We need to prioritize American lives and livelihoods.

Passing partisan pork will only increase our deficit and worsen the culture wars that divide us.

It's time for politicians to put aside the virtue signaling and to focus on policy making that truly benefits their constituents.