Nope. A deduction reduces your tax burden on your income. A child tax credit sends money above what you might owe in taxes.
The case that I read about didn’t go into too much detail.
The scam part, the assumption was the kids living in Mexico were anchor babies. Possible they were nonexistent.
Thanks for the mention/correction.
So far, all this sounds like a scam by the media.
None of this is in a bill yet.