Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) insisted over the weekend that illegal immigrants are entitled to their “fair share” of federal and state stimulus funds because some pay more in taxes than corporations that have been bailed out.
“Undocumented people pay taxes. So these folks, the folks that are working the farms to feed us, the people that are delivering our groceries and driving us from one place to another or doing our laundry and cleaning our clothes and our homes—these people pay taxes,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They pay for the very recovery funds that they are being cut out of on city state or federal levels, and so we have to make sure they get their fair share and that they are included.”
Ocasio-Cortez also said corporations that are not paying any taxes are getting bailed out while illegal immigrants who pay some taxes are not being included.
She asked: “If these big corporations don’t pay taxes but they’re getting bailed out by the federal government — why are we cutting out undocumented people who are actually paying more taxes than these other folks?”
The New York Democrat also praised California for giving illegal immigrants stimulus funds and said California’s recovery program is “leaps and bounds” better than what New York has done to help illegal immigrants.
“California is recognizing how critical undocumented workers have been in their economy and they are striving to pay it back,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez was one of the most vocal advocates of giving stimulus funds to illegal immigrants from the beginning, and three House Democrats later introduced a bill to give stimulus payments to everyone who has an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number), which would include many illegal immigrants.