The GOP's $4.5 trillion spending bill creates a parallel, harsher tax system for immigrants and their relatives

Lisa Murkowski and John Barrasso walk down a hallway (Credit: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

• The GOP’s $4.5 trillion bill penalizes immigrants and their U.S. citizen relatives by creating a parallel tax code for them—leaving them out of popular tax credits, adding fees, and taxing foreign- money transfers. It would “relegate millions of people to second-class status in our society,” one budget expert said.  

The Donald Trump-championed tax bill passed this week in the Senate and currently being re-debated in the House funds the president’s deportation efforts to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. It also targets immigrants in a different way, by creating a dual-class tax structure. One set of rules applies for citizens and citizen families; another for families with at least one immigrant member, regardless of whether they’re documented or not.