Advocates seek more virus aid for immigrants

State residents who are ineligible for federal disaster benefits, particularly foreign-born people who are not here legally, will be given housing and food assistance under a new state and philanthropic partnership that will provide some landlords with $1,000 and workers hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic with debit cards worth hundreds of dollars.

But advocates for the immigrant community said many millions of dollars more — as much as $120 million — is needed.

During a morning news conference Wednesday outside a Hartford nonprofit agency that helps the foreign-born community, Gov. Ned Lamont said that eligible residents total nearly 5 percent of the state workforce, many of whom lost their jobs in the pandemic or they continue to work in occupations where they are exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

The governor said that over the next couple of weeks, local organizations that serve the immigrant community will be contacting their most-vulnerable clients, who will also be tested for the coronavirus and given $200 to $400 debit cards. The state Department of Housing will be contacting landlords as part of a state-funded $2.5 million program.

The overall effort is a partnership with the twomonth-old 4-CT philanthropy, which is funding a million dollars worth of debit cards for food and clothing, said Ted Yang, the CEO and co-founder, who stressed that $10 million has already been awarded in direct aid.

“We are partnering together with communitybased organizations and community health centers to distribute these cards to those most in-need in an accountable and equitable manner,” he said, asking for people throughout the state to donate to the group.

“It’s hard to get back to work if you don’t have a roof over your head,” Lamont said outside the Make the Road Connecticut headquarters on Farmington Avenue in Hartford. Other participating organizations include Connecticut Mutual Aid, with offices throughout the state, including Middletown, Norwalk, Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven and Stratford.

“Until today we had very little support from the state,” said Kica Matos, director of the New Haven-based Vera Institute of Justice’s Center on Immigration and Justice. “While this is a step in the right direction, more is needed.”

The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress denies disaster relief to undocumented residents as well as U.S. citizens with undocumented spouses and even children who are citizens.

The state Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 17 overnight fatalities, bringing the death toll to 3,989 in the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency said that a net reduction of 28 hospitalizations brought the statewide census to 406, the lowest since 404 were hospitalized on March 29, when 20 fatalities had been reported.

There are about 140,000 foreign-born people in Connecticut who lack legal status, but pay state and local taxes but are ineligible for unemployment benefits, food stamps and the earned income tax credit. Lamont’s office said that in 2018, 29,000 households filed state taxes with individual taxpayer identification numbers, which are available to those without Social Security identification. More than 7,700 people filed taxes jointly with a U.S. citizen.

“We believe we deserve to live with dignity and respect,” said Barbara Lopez, director of Make the Road Connecticut, a statewide advocate for the immigrant community, both undocumented and mixed-status families. “Today is a somber day. We want to move from a narrative of scarcity to a narrative of abundance.”

Seila Mosquera-Bruno, the state housing commissioner, who was born in Mexico, admitted that the $2.4 million in housing assistance is a small. “These people are important,” she said. “This group of people is important and they represent about 4.9 percent of our workforce and we do need them. They provide very important work for our state.”

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT