Please join the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) and co-sponsors, the Price Center for Social Innovation at the University of Southern California and NETWORK, the national Catholic social justice lobby, for a webinar and discussion of the forthcoming Journal on Migration and Human Security report, “Tax Equality for Immigrants: The Indispensable Ingredient for Remedying Child Poverty in the United States.”

The report examines the unequal treatment of non-citizens in the US tax system, and the implications for plans to combat child poverty now under debate in Congress. Immigrants, chiefly the unauthorized, who do not qualify for a Social Security Number are required to pay taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), but their access to tax credits is limited by eligibility exclusions and bureaucratic barriers. Historic expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit are critical to the ambitious initiative to halve child poverty that the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats are pursuing through budget reconciliation. The report shows that the initiatives will leave behind about one of every five children in poverty, the great majority of them US citizens, if the unequal treatment of ITIN filers is not remedied. Yet in a positive development, seven states recently have extended state EITC programs to ITIN filers, and others are debating similar measures. The paper proposes a full agenda of actions by government and civil society actors to provide tax equality to immigrants. 

The report’s authors, Roberto Suro and Hannah Findling, will share key findings and policy recommendations. The webinar will also include respondents from government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

This free, virtual event is open to students, researchers, and practitioners of all disciplines. Advance registration is required.