IMMIGRANTS
beginning of May, the 43-year-old Bridgeport resident was diagnosed with the virus and needed to seek treatment.
However, through her husband’s employer, Marin, who is undocumented, has access to health care, a luxury not afforded to most people in the state and nationwide without legal status.
But there were still out-of-pocket expenses that came with the treatment. And, as the bills piled up, the couple, who also have two children, were dealt a final blow: Despite her husband’s status as a documented U.S. citizen and even though she pays taxes annually, using an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN), Marin’s immigration status disqualified the entire family from receiving federal stimulus money.
“It’s been very hard for us,” Marin said. “We’ve felt very powerless. The administration has left us aside. Even for people like me who have been paying taxes. We counted on this check to help us be able to pay the bills.”
Equal protection?
Marin described the situation as frustrating. She and her husband have been together 26 years and, since leaving their native Honduras 18 years ago, have filed their taxes jointly.
The federal Cares Act, passed by Congress in March, grants households under a certain income threshold up to $1,200 for each adult and $500 per child. But the bill excludes families with an undocumented immigrant — except those who have work authorization, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protected Status (TPS) — even if other family members are in the country legally.
The legislation has caused many advocates to question the fairness of the bill. It’s also prompted a lawsuit from the civil rights advocacy group Mexican American Legal Defense
and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which is alleging the omission is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit claims the stimulus package is discriminatory against mixed-status families and violates the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees “equal protection and due process.” According to James Bhandary-Alexander, a visiting clinical lecturer at the Yale School of Law and attorney with New Haven Legal Assistance, the government will soon have to make its defense of the exclusion.
“The legal justification is on its way because the government is being sued,” said BhandaryAlexander, who has been one of the leaders in the effort to push for enhanced aid to undocumented immigrants in Connecticut. “The government is going to have to defend its decision and explain why it doesn’t violate equal protection, specifically for the family members who would be eligible for the relief, but for having a lifetime commitment to a person who
is out of status.”
Democrats in the House of Representatives have proposed the inclusion of mixed-status families in subsequent stimulus rounds. But the suggestion has been met with opposition from Senate Republicans and may be removed from the second stimulus bill.
In Connecticut, repeated requests have been made of Gov. Ned Lamont — by advocates, as well as a contingent of Democratic General Assembly members — to create an emergency relief fund for undocumented people. His office said it was still reviewing the proposal in recent weeks.
“It’s kind of hard to comprehend that you can be a U.S. citizen or a green card holder, paying taxes and just because you file jointly with someone who has an ITIN number, you’re not eligible for any stimulus money,” said Catalina Horak, executive director of the Stamford nonprofit Building One Community.
According to advocates, the exclusion is among a multitude of ways in which undocumented immigrants are being denied aid during the public health crisis.
People without a Social Security Number — even those who pay taxes — are not eligible for unemployment benefits, often have no access to health care, don’t qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other food assistance programs and will not receive federal stimulus money. A disproportionate number of immigrants are also working jobs deemed essential and live in high-density areas, putting them at greater risk to contract the disease. Undocumented communities have been among the hardest-hit during the pandemic.
“Particularly with this administration, whatever inequities exist, the public health crisis is exacerbating them and the relief system is going to be equally structurally prejudice,” said Alok Bhatt, community defense coordinator for the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance. “The continuation of structural equities is manifesting in how the relief program plays out.”
Nationwide, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates more than 15 million people in mixed-status families are being excluded from the stimulus program. In Connecticut, MPI estimates roughly 34,000 children and spouses of undocumented people are excluded.
“It’s punishing citizens for marrying noncitizens, and it’s really hard to interpret it as anything other than ethnic cleansing — to really, materially punish people who associate themselves with out-of-status people,” Bhandary-Alexander said.
A grassroots approach
In lieu of state and federal assistance, local organizations are working to help undocumented Connecticut residents. But local nonprofits say they don’t have the bandwidth to adequately address the issue.
Immigrant advocacy groups like Make the Road CT, Building One Community and CIRA have started funds to provide aid to their constituents. Online petitions addressed to Lamont requesting the creation of a state fund have received thousands of signatures.
One COVID relief fund, the CT UndocuFund, is seeking to raise $75,000 to benefit between 75 and 150 undocumented families statewide. Applications for aid from the fund opened May 20 and had to be shut down within 10 minutes because the number of applicants already exceeded the total amount of grants that could be distributed, further illustrating the scope of the problem.
Because of that demand, advocates agree the problem is too large to manage without state and federal intervention. And for many families, the stress of the pandemic is building even as the state reopens.
For Marin, her family’s exclusion from the federal stimulus program feels like discrimination from a presidential administration that has made its feelings on immigrants clear.
“It was not this pandemic that discriminated against us and impacted our lives,” Marin said. “It was the president and the decisions he’s made.”