Sen. Cotton: States That Give Payments to Illegals Shouldn’t Get Stimulus Money

In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said that taxpayers deserve to know that their hard-earned money is not going to be used to bailout cities and states that see fit to disperse money to illegal immigrants. Cotton has proposed legislation that would prevent the federal government from sending stimulus money to states like California, which have created their own special stimulus funds for people who don’t belong in the country.

“We shouldn’t be spending hard-earned taxpayer dollars on illegal immigrants at a time when 35 million Americans are out of work,” Cotton said. “If we are going to be giving relief checks to those people who are out of work, we need to focus on American citizens, not illegal immigrants.”

Cotton’s legislation, the No Bailouts for Illegal Aliens Act, would require states and/or cities to certify that illegal immigrants will receive no coronavirus stimulus payments if they are to receive federal funds. If these local officials refuse to certify that statements, they will not be eligible for federal taxpayer funds.

“New York, Illinois, New Jersey, California have some of the highest state income taxes in the entire country,” noted Hannity. “Now, there is more waste, fraud, abuse, debt, deficits. They are now trying to get people like yourself and people in red states that elect responsible politicians that don’t tax and spend to death to bail them out. That means bailout their stupidity. You talk about illegal immigration – how much is that costing the state of California every year, the state of New York every year? A lot of money.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California drew outrage on Sunday when he warned, in an interview with CNN, that his state would lay off first responders – firefighters, EMTs, etc. – first if they could not meet their budgetary requirements during the pandemic.

It was quickly noted that Newsom was making this “bail us out or else” threat on the same day that California began mailing out checks to more than 150,000 illegal immigrants as part of a statewide coronavirus stimulus program. $75 million of the fund comes directly from Sacramento’s taxpayer money while the rest comes from private organizations.

If California taxpayers are fine watching their government leaders send their paychecks to illegal aliens, that’s on them. But don’t come to Washington asking for a bailout. Don’t even think about it.