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Congress Can't Even Hand Cash to Americans Without Leftists Demanding Illegals Get Some, Too

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There was plenty of sturm und drang about who ended up getting what in the massive $2 trillion relief package Congress passed before it was finally signed by President Donald Trump on Saturday.

There’ll still be plenty of debate over whether or not the money is going to the right place. There’s one thing I think we all should agree on, though: The relief package should only include checks to American citizens.

We should. We don’t. And while it’s some of our politicians that are saying this, there are also a lot of non-governmental organizations that are saying it, as well.

If you think it’s fringe voices putting this forth, it’s also probably worth noting that fringe voices are taking more and more oxygen when it comes to politics on the left.

Take New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the House Financial Services Committee and star of the freshman class of 2019 — if more in terms of media coverage than in actual achievement — who protested that immigrants both legally and illegally in this country don’t get a $1,200 check from the plan.

“To clarify, $1200 checks are ONLY going to some w/social sec numbers, NOT immigrants w/ tax IDs (ITINs),” she tweeted Thursday, referring to individual taxpayer identification numbers, a program that allows immigrants — including those here illegally — to pay their federal income taxes.

“Thanks to GOP, these checks will be cut off the backs of *taxpaying immigrants,* who get nothing. Many are essential workers who pay more taxes than Amazon. Wall St gets $4T.”

At least she kept her protest to immigrants paying federal taxes, however. Fellow “squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan came up with her own plan that would give $2,000 on a debit card, with $1,000 added for every month until a year after the crisis ends, to individuals “including undocumented people, permanent residents, and temporary visitors whose stay exceeds three months.”

That wasn’t the most insane part of the plan, though: She wanted to pay for it with two $1 trillion coins.

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You would think, given those tweets, that she was hiding how she planned to pay for the bill. On the contrary, she practically invented (or, your dad might say, coined) the hashtag #MintTheCoin to promote it:

These were two of the voices in Congress who were promoting relief checks to illegal immigrants. There were plenty of extra-governmental organizations promoting the idea, as well. Breitbart managed to collect a few of these gems, including one from Marielena Hincapié of the George Soros-backed United We Dream:

Some of these individuals thought the money should go to illegal immigrants who had individual taxpayer identification numbers. Some of them didn’t. The general tenor of everything was, however, that it was time to put more non-Americans on the dole, regardless of whether they were in the country legally.

Do you think illegal immigrants should have been included in the relief package?

The Democratic mainstream understood, at a basic level, that this would be unacceptable to the average voter. Even in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s wish list plan, this was never an option. That ought to have told everyone just how toxic this idea is — which is why all but the fringes of the Democratic Party avoided it.

The new left is free to say this, however. AOC and Tlaib are likely to be re-elected in their districts in perpetuity, unappetizing as that prospect might be. Nobody votes for groups like the National Immigrant Justice Center and United We Dream. They’re able to say the quiet part as loud as they like.

Whether or not you agree with the sprawling aid package passed by Congress last weeek, one thing should be clear: This package ought to be for American citizens. We’ll be the ones who end up paying for it, after all. We also have a legal right to be in the country.

This isn’t xenophobia, merely facts.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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