Senate Republicans’ ad claiming Elissa Slotkin gave ‘tax money to illegal immigrants’ is misleading

The National Republican Senatorial Committee recently claimed in an ad that Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Elissa Slotkin, gave taxpayer money to immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally.

The Instagram ad, which began running Aug. 28, says Slotkin "gave your hard-earned tax money to illegal immigrants." 

The ad cited Slotkin’s vote for the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, which included stimulus checks of up to $1,400 to eligible people. 

We asked the committee for evidence that the payments went to immigrants in the country illegally, and received no reply.

Immigrants in the country illegally were generally ineligible for the stimulus payments, said Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. 

The eligibility criteria required people to have Social Security numbers to receive the payments, and the vast majority of people in the country illegally do not have Social Security numbers. 

Immigrants in the country illegally could receive payments on behalf of their U.S.-born children who are citizens, Lacarte said. It’s also possible, though rare, that immigrants with Social Security numbers who lost their authorization to work could have received payments.

Slotkin, who represents Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, is running against former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed in 2021, was the third COVID-19 relief package to give direct payments to Americans. Individual taxpayers making less than $75,000 annually were eligible for $1,400 in direct payments; couples filing jointly who made up to $150,000 annually were eligible for $2,800 payments.

Slotkin joined nearly all House Democrats in voting for the bill. Every House Republican voted no. The previous two pandemic relief bills, which also distributed checks, passed with large bipartisan majorities under then-Republican President Donald Trump. 

To receive the payments, the law said a person had to have a valid Social Security number and could not be a "nonresident alien." Exceptions to the Social Security number requirement included dependents with an adoption taxpayer ID and people married to military service members. 

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In most cases, people in the country illegally lack Social Security numbers, Lacarte said. Many immigrants in the country illegally pay taxes, but they do so using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. Taxpayers with these numbers were not eligible for the stimulus payments. 

Some noncitizens, including those granted temporary work visas, receive Social Security numbers to pay taxes.

If people lost work authorization but kept paying taxes through their Social Security numbers, they could have received a stimulus payment, Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, said. But Lacarte said that situation is very unlikely. 

"This is a pretty improbable scenario, because if you’re out of status, it’s very unlikely that you’ll be filing taxes," Lacarte said.

The Center for Migration Studies of New York estimates that 46% of immigrants in the country illegally as of 2017 overstayed a visa. Of those who overstayed visas in 2022, 70% were visitors and ineligible to receive Social Security numbers, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The agency does not separate out those who overstayed work visas, but it is only a portion of the remaining 30%. 

In a change from previous pandemic relief bills, under the American Rescue Plan, when a couple filed a tax return — one without legal immigration status using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number and the other a U.S. citizen using a Social Security number — the spouse and dependents who had valid Social Security numbers could receive payments. The filer using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number did not receive a stimulus check.  

In previous pandemic relief bills, U.S. citizens were ineligible to receive stimulus checks if they filed a tax return with a spouse who was using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or if they were a dependent whose parent filed a tax return using such a number.

"There may be confusion out there because of the fact that people who are unauthorized can apply for those benefits in the name of somebody, who’s usually their child, who’s a U.S. citizen, who is eligible," Lacarte said. 

The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee said Slotkin "gave your hard-earned tax money to illegal immigrants," citing Slotkin’s vote for the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, which included stimulus checks.

Slotkin did not vote in favor of giving stimulus checks to immigrants in the country illegally. The bill required a person to have a Social Security number to receive the checks, and most immigrants in the country illegally do not have Social Security numbers.  

Immigrants in the country illegally could claim payments on behalf of their children if those children were U.S. citizens.

It’s not impossible that immigrants in the country illegally received stimulus checks, but that scenario is hypothetical. The burden of proof is on the speaker, and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee did not provide evidence that immigrants in the country illegally received the checks. 

We rate this claim False.