IRS is Handing Out Stimulus Checks to Foreign Students

Jose Nino   |  

May 6, 2020

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Immigration restriction organization Numbers USA reported that a tax filing error has “led to thousands of foreign students who performed work in the United States to receive $1,200 stimulus checks.” A substantial portion of the stimulus recipients are no longer stateside, but worked in the U.S. while living in the country on an F-1 student visa or a J-1 cultural exchange visa.

According to Politico, the foreign students used one of the online tax providers to file their tax returns. The online providers mistakenly filed “resident” tax returns for the students. Under normal circumstances,  the providers should have filed “non-resident” returns.

The CARES Act, which Congress passed last month, provides automatic tax refunds for tax filers making less than $99,000 or married filing jointly incomes that fall below $198,000. Congress originally attempted to bar all individuals who are not U.S. citizens or Legal Permanent Residents from having access to the tax refunds. However, the IRS has a definition for “alien residents” that greatly differs with the definition outlined according to immigration law. As a result, this discrepancy has led to some nonimmigrant, foreign workers currently living in the U.S. to receive the refund.

Numbers USA noted that “the foreign students receiving the tax refund is not due to the difference in definitions, however. It’s purely due to a filing error, and it not being caught by the IRS.”

Neither the IRS nor Turbo Tax, an online tax filing provider, responded to a comment request from Politico.

This case represents one of the multi-faceted problems with mass migration.

The Trump administration will need to get serious on the matter and find ways to curtail birthright citizenship, put the clamps on visa expansions, and ultimately implement a moratorium on all migration.

He will not only need to be re-elected but also secure both Republican control of the House and Senate to see any meaningful reforms through.

The very health of America as a viable nation-state is at stake.