Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/us/coronavirus-undocumented-california.html)
Immigrants without legal status in California have been hit hard by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like millions of other Americans, they have lost jobs, wages and some have even lost their homes due to shutdowns and the economic fallout of the virus. In order to provide support to these communities, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom pledged in April to send at least $500 to around 150,000 immigrants in California with the Disaster Relief for Immigrants program. Twelve nonprofits were given state contracts to oversee and distribute the payments.
Its been three months later and only half of the original 150,000 people have received their payments. Clearly the California government has larger concerns and did not expedite this process. The scale of the issue is also very large and the twelve nonprofits selected to run the program have been woefully unprepared for the amount of claims they’ve received. The root problem is that the people in these undocumented communities cannot apply for regular CA state unemployment, which has doled out millions already to Californians who have a citizenship.
In response to the lack of aid, hundreds of nonprofits and humanitarian groups around the country have rallied behind these immigrant communities by raising money for their benefit. One such group, the Grantmakers Concerned With Immigrants and Refugees has already raised around $50 million dollars to contribute to the program.
There have been calls within the California Legislature to increase the amount of money being given with each payment. Many have argued that $500 is not enough to feed families and pay rent. The allotted $500 is far less than what Californian citizens make from state unemployment. As the pandemic continues, more attention must be given to these communities in order to provide adequate economic aid.
CIMA Law Group Blog 