Bernie Moreno misleads on Sherrod Brown votes for federal aid for migrants with nonlegal status

An ad from Republican Bernie Moreno in a high-profile Senate race labels incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, responsible for giving federal benefits to immigrants in the country illegally.

"For nearly 50 years, politician Sherrod Brown helped create the crisis at our southern border," a narrator says with Brown’s picture overlaid on images of migrant caravans and a controversial Times Square brawl between migrants and police, "voting with radicals like Kamala Harris to give illegals taxpayer-funded stimulus checks, health care, even Social Security, rewarding illegals. Sherrod Brown caused the crisis."

The ad also says Moreno, a businessman who has never held elected office, will secure the border and deport "illegals." It is part of a $25 million ad buy through Election Day that includes TV, streaming, radio, digital and mail, according to Politico.

We asked the Moreno campaign for proof to back claims that Brown, elected to Congress in 1992 and to the Senate in 2006, voted to give federal benefits to immigrants in the country illegally. Moreno campaign spokesperson Reagan McCarthy cited votes Brown made in 2007, 2013 and 2021.

Moreno’s claims are similar to past statements we’ve fact-checked and found misleading. 

Immigrants in the country illegally generally do not qualify for most federal benefits.

Let’s take these claims one by one.

McCarthy cited Brown’s March 6, 2021, vote to reject an amendment to the American Rescue Plan from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as proof Brown voted to give stimulus checks to immigrants in the country illegally. 

The American Rescue Plan already excluded people in the country illegally from receiving stimulus checks by requiring Social Security numbers and excluding "any nonresident alien individual" from the program. The Cruz amendment would have closed a potential loophole that may have allowed migrants who overstayed their temporary work visas from using their Social Security numbers to collect stimulus checks, according to the Washington Post Fact Checker. 

The National Republican Senatorial Committee used an identical False claim against Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., in 2022. The American Rescue Plan, authored by Democrats and signed into law in 2021, required people to have Social Security numbers to receive the benefits, with exceptions for dependents who have an adoption taxpayer ID and people married to military members.

So, Brown’s vote against Cruz’s amendment did not enable people in the country illegally to receive stimulus checks.

On March 23, 2013, Brown voted to reject a budget bill amendment from then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., that would bar immigrants in the country illegally from qualifying for federally subsidized health care. Moreno’s portrayal of that vote, too, is misleading.

Featured Fact-check

Mike Rogers

stated on September 27, 2024 in a campaign rally

Rep. Elissa Slotkin “voted recently to let illegals vote in U.S. elections.”

Migrants in the country illegally do not qualify for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program and cannot purchase subsidized health insurance coverage through the government portal, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The amendment was part of what is called a "vote-a-rama." The Budget Act limits debate on budget measures to 50 hours, but does not set a time limit for the consideration of amendments to the bill during the budget reconciliation process. Lawmakers introduce a litany of amendments to delay voting on the final measure and force the opposition to vote on controversial subjects.

Steven Smith, political science professor emeritus and former director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, said the Sessions amendment would have had "no policy effect."

"Zero. Nada," Smith said by email. "Other legislation would have to be enacted into law for it to have any potential meaning."

Reconciliation bill amendments must be budget-related, Smith said. So, an amendment that barred immigrants in the country illegally from receiving benefits would not be in order.

Brown campaign spokesperson Matt Keyes said Brown voted for a similar amendment from then-Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the same day as the Sessions amendment reaffirming immigrants in the country illegally cannot receive federal benefits. That amendment passed by voice vote.

McCarthy, Moreno’s spokesperson, pointed to a July 19, 2007, Brown vote quashing an amendment from then-Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., to the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. The amendment would have prevented migrants who later earned legal status from receiving credit for paying into Social Security while they were in the country illegally. The amendment required a 60-vote threshold for consideration, but failed with only 57 in favor.

The bill would not have given Social Security benefits to immigrants who were in the country illegally. It would have changed the calculation for legal immigrants for their payment into the system before gaining legal status.

It is also not the full story. Ensign offered a similar amendment to an appropriations bill Oct. 23, 2007, which passed with 92 votes in favor, including Brown’s.

Keyes added that Brown again voted June 26, 2013, on an amendment to an immigration bill that prevented immigrants in the country illegally from receiving Social Security for work done illegally.

Again, this is not the first time we’ve checked a claim like this. Nevada Republican Sharron Angle made a nearly identical claim against then-Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2010, which we found misled voters by inaccurately describing what the amendment would have done and by not accounting for other votes.

Moreno said Brown voted to "give illegals taxpayer funded stimulus checks, health care, even Social Security."

The three votes Moreno’s campaign cited would not have provided any federal benefits to immigrants in the country illegally. The American Rescue Plan already barred them from receiving stimulus checks. Federal law already prohibited them from qualifying for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program and barred them from buying insurance through the federal exchange.

Moreno also misleads on Brown’s vote regarding Social Security. The vote would not have granted benefits to immigrants who are in the country illegally, but would have changed the allocation from immigrants who later received legal status. Brown also voted later to approve nearly identical legislation to the one Moreno cited.

We rate the claim False.