Millions with undocumented spouses denied coronavirus aid.
SAN ANTONIO — When the Trump administration’s $2 trillion coronavirus relief package passed, undocumented immigrants were excluded from the federal stimulus aid.
But millions of U.S. citizens also were not eligible for the stimulus checks — because they’re married to undocumented spouses. Families with citizen children also won’t get aid if one parent is undocumented.
“It’s been a really hard time. Feeling completely left out of this,” said Christina Segundo-Hernandez, a U.S. citizen and mother of four in Fort Worth, whose husband is undocumented. “I’m an American citizen. I was born here. My children were born here. But I feel like I’m less of an American.”
In the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, any American who filed income taxes jointly with someone who uses a taxpayer number, known as an ITIN, instead of a Social Security number is ineligible for a stimulus check. Most undocumented immigrants, who don’t get Social Security numbers, use ITINs to open bank accounts and file taxes.
That makes families with an undocumented parent also ineligible for the bonus payments that come with having children.
“Millions of American citizens … were denied thousands of their own taxpayer dollars when they needed economic relief most from their government,” said U.S.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio. “Leaving these families out to pass coronavirus legislation was a grave injustice.”
About 1.2 million citizens and 746,000 legal residents are married to undocumented immigrants, according to Migrant Policy Institute’s 2016 figures. And more than 3.2 million U.S. citizen children have at least one undocumented parent.
Suit against the feds
This week, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued the federal government, arguing that the CARES Act “discriminates against mixed-status couples.” Segundo-Hernandez is one of six plaintiffs in the case brought by the civil rights group, which was founded in San Antonio.
The House’s original version of the legislation included provisions for citizens in mixed-status families, but they were excluded in the Republican-majority Senate bill. Republican proponents of the final bill argued that it ensured that citizens were prioritized over immigrants who are living here illegally.
“I would say this is a monumental injustice,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
“We also must use it as a bridge. I think if the American people understood clearly the injustice of it all, they would see the other injustice in all kinds of lack of access, whether it’s health care and the rest,” she said.
Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates say that under a staggering economic crisis, this is when Americans need the aid most — especially when many undocumented immigrants and their families work in jobs now deemed “essential” in the coronavirus pandemic, including truck drivers, health care workers and farm workers.
“U.S. citizen children, little children, who live in a household with an undocumented parent, are not receiving the critical financial support they need. That money could be their next meal, shirt on their back, so many other things they need,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York.
‘Pretty rough’ going
Segundo-Hernandez, a UPS package handler, and her husband have seen their hours cut because of the pandemic. With four kids ages 5 to 11, including one with autism, SegundoHernandez said that “it’s been pretty rough not having that extra bit of money that everybody else is getting.”
“We have a right as Americans to marry who we want to marry,” she said. “And have kids with who we want to have children with.”
She said that if she received a stimulus check, she’d spend it on the family’s basic needs: “Fill up my refrigerator, pay up my bills.”