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President Trump will seek to tighten restrictions on some tax credits to prevent them from being claimed by illegal immigrants, a measure that the administration says is necessary to respect taxpayers and balance the budget.

Trump's fiscal 2018 budget, set to be released Tuesday, will set higher eligibility standards for the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Monday. According to the administration, the measures will save $40 billion over 10 years.

"How do I go to somebody who pays their taxes, and say, Look, I want you to give this earned income tax credit to somebody who's working here illegally'? That's not defensible," Mulvaney told reporters. "And it's a reasonable accommodation to simply ask them for Social Security numbers."

The earned income tax credit is a refundable tax credit, which means that if a recipient has no income tax liability, the government sends the person a check. Part of the child tax credit is also refundable.

Both programs have high improper payment amounts. About a quarter of payments were made improperly in 2016, according to the Treasury inspector general for tax, or about $17 billion for the earned income tax credit and $7 billion for the child tax credit.

Those wrongful payments do not necessarily represent fraud. For the most part, they reflect families getting confused by the eligibility rules.

Under current law, workers must provide a Social Security number to receive the earned income tax credit. To claim the refundable portion of the child tax credit, though, only an individual taxpayer identification number is necessary, which the IRS issues to workers who are not authorized to work but need it for tax purposes.

The administration did not say how eligibility would be tightened other than to state that the benefits would be limited to people who are authorized to work in the country.

Some anti-illegal immigration groups have said that allowing workers to claim credits without providing a Social Security number amounts to paying illegal immigrants to stay in the country. Conservative lawmakers also have favored tightening the restrictions as a matter of fiscal conservatism.

Liberal groups, though, argue that illegal immigrants pay taxes, such as payroll taxes for Social Security, for which they won't get benefits. More generally, the low-income tax credits generally benefit needy families, even if they technically did not qualify for the benefits they received.

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Trump calls to cut off tax breaks for illegal immigrants - Washington Examiner

ELECTION 2018: Illegal Immigration Becoming Major Issues in Baltimore County WCBM Over the next few weeks, Baltimore County will be Maryland's ground zero in the controversy over President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. The three Republicans on the County Council, Todd Crandell, David Marks and Wade Kach, want the ...

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ELECTION 2018: Illegal Immigration Becoming Major Issues in Baltimore County - WCBM

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In a 60 Minutes special report,more than 800 churches are acting as mini-sanctuary jurisdictions to hide illegal immigrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

ICE has a long-standing policy in which agents do not detain illegal immigrants at churches, making the facilities an ideal spot to avoid deportation orders.

In a Buffalo, New York, church profiled, parish staff confirmed that they recently harbored an illegal alien family of four from Honduras. Since January, the church officials said it protected more than 40 migrants.

Rev. Robin Hynicka of Philadelphias Arch Street Methodist Church explained how he believes enforcing federal immigration laws are oppressive to illegal immigrants who remain in the U.S.

Its injustice and oppression, all of which is evil, Hynicka said. Yeah, when a human beings human rights are denied, when they cant stay with their family, when they cant work, when they cant participate in the community in which they have deep roots, all of those apply.

In one specific case, Hynickas church has been harboring Javier Flores Garcia, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who came to the U.S. in 1997. Garcia was arrested and convicted for drunk driving, and despite an immigration judge ordering him be deported, he remains hiding out in Arch Street Methodist Church.

ICEs Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale did not back down to his agencys responsibility to enforce federal immigration law and protect Americans, despite questioning from 60 Minutes Scott Pelley.

Scott Pelley: How much concern do you have about separating families in deportations?

Daniel Ragsdale: As a human being, I know it is traumatic for folks. But I will also say that the Rule of Law is something that America is built on. But this seems to be the one area where the narrative about separating families, you know, sort of gets a little bit ratcheted up.

Scott Pelley: Well, you can understand why.

Daniel Ragsdale: Well, I can. But I would suggest that every person who has, you know, come to the United States illegally, just like if I went somewhere and, you know, resided in violation of law, I could expect at some point that sovereign country to want to remove me.

Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter to 10 sanctuary cities, demanding they stop obstructing federal immigration agents from being able to deport criminal illegal immigrants. Sessions said that if sanctuary cities do not eventually comply with federal law, they could see a loss in federal grant money.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at@JxhnBinder.

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CBS: 800 Churches Nationwide Harbor Illegal Immigrants - Breitbart News

A staggering 739,450 people overstayed their visas to become illegal immigrants in 2016, according to a new report released Monday by Homeland Security that suggests the immigration problem has shifted away from people sneaking in, and toward people who came legally but refused to leave when they were supposed to.

This report shows that we have a problem with visa overstays in the United States, a senior administration official said in briefing reporters on the new numbers, vowing to step up enforcement to try to cut down on the violations.

The Trump administrations report stands in contract to the Obama administration, which played down the numbers last year when officials released a similar report, focusing on the vast majority of travelers who did comply and leave when they were supposed to.

Indeed, more than 98.5 percent of those admitted through airports and seaports departed before their admissions expired in 2016. But the sheer amount of travel some 54 million visitors who came through those air and sea ports means that even that small overstay rate works out to nearly 740,000 illegal immigrants.

Some of the overstays were short-term, and they did leave eventually, but the majority were long-term problems. Nearly 630,000 were still in the U.S. at the end of 2016, for a persistent overstay rate of 1.25 percent.

Student visas holders were the worst offenders, with more than 5 percent of them breaking the terms of their visits and a persistent overstay rate of 2.8 percent.

Almost none of the visa overstays are investigated, Homeland Security officials told Congress last year. Just 2,500 visa overstay cases resulted in deportations in 2015, or a fraction of 1 percent of the problem.

While its difficult to know exact flows, some analysts say that for every illegal immigrant nabbed at the border, another one gets through. That means that fewer than 500,000 new illegal immigrants a year have snuck in.

Illegal overstays, meanwhile, easily top that number now, according to the new numbers.

Homeland Security experts say those who come legally then overstay have at least faced some scrutiny, often by State Department employees who issue visas, and then by border officers who make a final determination on everyone admitted. Thats different than border crossers, who face no inspection whatsoever, and where the identity of those who entered is entirely unknown.

Still, experts point out that at least five of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist plot were visa overstay.

The report is years overdue, and the Obama administration struggled to get it done, with then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson sending versions back for rewrites. A partial report was released last year, but it only covered basic tourist and business visas, not student visas or other categories that grant foreigners prolonged access and a chance to make a life in the U.S.

Those additional categories in this years report are likely one reason the numbers are higher.

The reports only cover arrivals and departures by air and sea, not land ports of entry, where inspection is less thorough though those crossing are usually locals who are going back and forth regularly, and stay near the border.

Most of the people are really just crossing within that border zone, a senior official said.

The biggest offenders even when just looking at airports and seaports were Canada and Mexico, which accounted for a combined 182,000 overstays.

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Visa overstays now biggest problem in illegal immigration - Washington Times

More than 800 houses of worship in America have volunteered to shelter illegal immigrants and their familieswho face deportation, CBS' "60 Minutes" reports.

Under President Donald Trump, Immigration, Customs and Enforcement has detained 11,000illegal immigrants who have no criminal record, twice as manyas last year.

When a law breaks the backs of God's people then it's time for us to think about breaking those laws, said Rev. Robin Hynicka of Philadelphia's Arch Street Methodist Church.

Hynicka's church has opened its doors toFlores Garcia, who has a deportation order against him because he repeatedly crossed the border and because of a decade-old DUI charge.

Thats injustice and oppression, all of which is evil, says Hynicka.

When a human being's human rights are denied, when they can't stay with their family, when they can't work, when they can't participate in the community in which they have deep roots, all of those apply.

In Buffalo, New York, a church has sheltered 40 illegal immigrants since Trump took office and vowed to crack down on illegal immigration. Last week, it offered sanctuary to a family of six from Honduras. Trump's administration has threatened to cut federal funding from sanctuary cities, including New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, but that battle is far from over.

ICE Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale told 60 Minutes he understandshow traumatic the deportation process can be for families.

But I will also say that the rule of law is something that America is built on.

Ragsdale said his advice for people like Garcia is, they should come out of the basement of the churches and follow the law.

2017 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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'60 Minutes': 800-Plus Churches are Sanctuaries for Illegal Immigrants - Newsmax