Cortez Masto, Wyden, Durbin Demand Trump Administration Abandon Plan to Strip Tax Credits from 700,000 American Taxpayers

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) led six of their colleagues in demanding the Trump Administration abandon a plan that would prevent up to 700,000 Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients and other tax-paying immigrants from claiming tax credits they are eligible for.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Treasury are proposing a rule change that would prevent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers from claiming the Adoption Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. DACA and TPS recipients have been lawfully claiming these taxes for decades.

"According to your own estimates, the proposed rule change could affect up to 700,000 taxpayers," the Senators wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano. "This would include more than 300,000 individuals living in households with a DACA recipient, two-thirds of whom are U.S. citizens and who have, on average, lived in the United States for over 28 years. The practical effect of these new regulations would be to deny tax credits to immigrants who are legally eligible for them and lawfully present in our country, and to create a byzantine and unworkable system for both tax preparers and taxpayers."

"The Administration has no legal authority to change congressionally enacted tax law via regulation…" they continued. "Since the passage of PRWORA in 1996, no federal agency has interpreted refundable tax credits as federal public benefits restricted to qualified immigrants. If Congress intended for refundable tax credits to be treated as federal public benefits, it has had over 30 years to clarify the statute."

"The proposed rule is clear regulatory overreach that would have disastrous impacts for lawfully present immigrants and their families who are legally eligible for refundable tax credits," they concluded.

In addition to Senators Cortez Masto, Wyden, and Durbin, the letter was signed by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The full text of the letter is available here.

The first and only Latina Senator, Cortez Masto has consistently supported immigrant communities in Nevada. She has called on both the Biden and Trump Administrations to protect Dreamers, TPS holders, and other immigrants. Cortez Masto has worked to pass meaningful immigration reform that balances critical border security measures with a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. Earlier this year, the Senator attended and spoke at a naturalization ceremony for new American citizens at the Sand Harbor Amphitheater at Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

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