On Friday, April 6, President Trump signed off on a stimulus bill designed to assist the millions of Americans who have lost income due to the consequences of COVID-19. The bill allocates $2 trillion for struggling industries, overwhelmed hospitals, small businesses, as well as expands unemployment benefits, and sends stimulus checks to individuals. Those who file a tax return this year will be sent a tax rebate of $1,200 for individuals who earn up to $75,000 a year, with another $500 per child. Families with older children will receive no check for any dependent aged 17 or older.
Although many are referring to the measure as “historic” (it will cost twice the amount allotted for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008), the bill is nakedly inadequate for a number of reasons. For the 10 million people who registered initial jobless claims with the Labor Department over the last two weeks, and the 701,000 people who have been let go or furloughed, reported by the Labor Department for March, the package’s passing comes after a recent common rent payment deadline, April 1. Millions have already suffered a loss of income, including gig workers not accounted for in some of these statistics. The payment is only meant to happen once, ensuring that without larger bills in the future, many who are able to receive their checks this month will not be able to cover expenses now or in the coming months, when experts expect social distancing measures and their economic consequences to continue.
But one group in particular has been abandoned completely by the newly-enacted CARES Act – undocumented immigrants. These estimated 10.5-12 million workers, who notably pay almost $14 billion in state and federal taxes every year, are afforded no provisions at all by the bill, save for free testing at community health centers (which are woefully short on tests to begin with).
Unauthorized immigrants are especially vulnerable to the virus and its effects. They are more likely to work low-paying jobs in areas termed “essential”, such as food service, grocery stores, food production and agriculture, taxi drivers, manufacturing, shipping, or janitorial work. Employees in these fields are rarely afforded paid sick leave, and are unlikely to be able to foot the cost of missing work due to sickness or in order to keep a safe distance from others during this time. Undocumented immigrants are categorized as “unauthorized for work”/”unavailable for work” by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, making them ineligible for both regular unemployment benefits and the extended benefits passed by the CARES Act .
Even those covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in most states will be unable to file for unemployment, and those who live in households where at least one person files taxes under a Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) will not be able to apply at all. Recipients of ITINs, usually undocumented immigrants, pay taxes although they do not have a Social Security Number. Approximately 16.7 million people who live in mixed-immigration-status homes will go unprovided for during the pandemic. According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the prerequisite for receiving a stimulus check will be the filing of a tax return this year (except for senior citizens who receive Social Security benefits), which is problematic in itself: Many Americans don’t make enough to even file taxes, shutting them out of the relief bill. Nevertheless, millions of undocumented workers – who produce billions in revenue for the government – will still be treated as less than an afterthought.
Not only does this present another deliberate insult to a group that has been repeatedly preyed upon by the Trump administration, but it creates a special risk for a group that lacks even the baseline protections given to most Americans. Forcing people to make a choice as to which way they will endanger their lives pushes them to continue working unless they want to lose their source of income, putting at risk not only them and their families, but whoever they are put in contact with directly or indirectly through their jobs.
Of course, the solution would be to provide thoughtful and adequate measures for all immigrants during this crisis and after it – amidst talk of COVID-19 laying bare the disparities in American life, it should be clear that undocumented workers should not have been put in this disadvantaged territory in the first place. Nobody wants to be sick, even people who typically can’t bring themselves to care about undocumented Americans as a vulnerable population. But snubbing deserving immigrants and their communities, no matter the targeted and malevolent intentions of the administration, tethers all Americans to what can only be acknowledged as a time bomb.
