Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) said Thursday that he plans to “intervene” over a provision in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package passed in March that denies stimulus checks to more than 1 million U.S. citizens married to undocumented immigrants.
“I don’t know where that came from,” Rubio said in a Telemundo interview Thursday. “I would like to learn more about those cases and intervene.”
In order to qualify for the payments, both spouses in families that file joint tax returns must have Social Security numbers, unless one of them is a member of the military.
In April, a man who claims he is being discriminated against “based solely on whom he chose to marry” filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration after he was denied a stimulus check because his wife pays taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), which is issued by the IRS.
ITINs are usually used by immigrants in lieu of a Social Security number.
“Somebody doesn’t lose their citizenship or their rights as a citizen because they’re married to somebody who doesn’t have documents,” Rubio said.
Rubio’s office did not immediately respond to inquiry regarding the senator’s plan to address the issue.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have called for the next coronavirus bill to grant economic relief to American citizens who file taxes jointly with spouses who do not have a Social Security number.