I suppose we should have seen this one coming, particularly considering the malarkey that the Democrats have been trying to shovel into the so-called reconciliation bill from day one. After failing twice to convince the Senate Parliamentarian to allow some form of general amnesty for illegal aliens as part of what is supposed to be a spending bill, some actual spending has now shown up. Only this facet also represents a significant policy change, and possibly an illegal one at that. Stowed away in the bill is a provision that would allow anyone residing in the United States who provides an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) to apply for the Child Tax Credit. Currently, all filers are required to provide a Social Security Number. We’ll get to why the difference is critical in a moment. (Free Beacon)

President Joe Biden’s budget includes a provision that provides billions of dollars in cash to illegal aliens with children.

The $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill extends the Child Tax Credit to anyone in the United States who provides an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, overturning a crucial safeguard against fraud. Federal law required a valid Social Security number to receive the cash transfer from the federal government. The potential payout for illegal immigrants is massive, with each family receiving a monthly payment of $250 to $300 per child.

A survey from the Pew Research Center found that roughly 675,000 children are not eligible for a Social Security number, making the tax credit expansion for illegal aliens cost between $2.025 billion to $2.43 billion a year. Other estimates put the total number of illegal children residing in the United States at more than 800,000.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, this potentially illegal change carries some significant ramifications. Guess what sort of government document illegal aliens (including their children) are unable to obtain. A Social Security Number. But since many of them do manage to somehow file tax returns every year, do you know what sort of identifier they can come up with? An ITIN.

With an ITIN in hand, they would now be able to file for the Child Tax Credit. Each family would be eligible to receive up to $3,600 per year per child. And we’re talking about an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 children.

The reason that SSNs have always been required to apply for federal entitlements of this type was to prevent fraud. Non-citizens are not entitled to receive such benefits. But with one wave of the Democrat magic wand, illegal aliens would be able to sidestep that security measure and run up the government’s bill by a very significant chunk. And if you think that this change just happened to show up in the bill by accident, you’re probably delusional. This was clearly intentional and the reason is obvious.

They’re trying to shovel this change into the system just as we’re seeing a nearly unprecedented surge in illegal aliens crossing the border, most of whom are now simply being released without having to go through any processing. That number includes a lot of children. These migrants already come here in violation of the law because they learn about America’s generous social welfare system. This application of the Child Tax Credit in such a fashion would amount to what is essentially a guaranteed basic income for all illegal alien families with children. Don’t you suppose that when word of this gets around, even more of them will be heading for the now-open border?

As the old saying goes, this isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. Joe Biden and his spokespeople from DHS keep insisting that they want all of the illegal migrants to stay home and not worsen the Biden border crisis. But the Democrats’ actions speak louder than their words. First they tried to ram through amnesty, and now this. The disregard for the basic rule of law on display here is simply galling.