Immigrants needing help are not getting benefits of stimulus

House painter Jose Martinez stands on his front porch in Greenfield, Mass. Martinez said a pandemic stimulus check could have helped cover at least a month’s worth of expenses, if he had qualified. The 34-year-old Mexican crossed the border illegally about 15 years ago and lives near the Vermont state line with his 4-year-old American-born daughter. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Despite the stimulus packages passed by the US Congress, immigrants needing help during the current pandemic are not getting it, according to Federal Advocacy Immigration Hub Director Kerri Talbot.

Talbot unpacked the stimulus packages last month in a series of online Zoom video briefings hosted by Ethnic Media Services (EMS) with support from Blue Shield of California Foundation.

She was joined in the briefing by Sunita Lough, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement, who discussed the Economic Impact Payment of $1,200 per person.

The other panelists were Sebastian Sanchez, Bet Tzedek Legal Services Staff Attorney who discussed the challenges of filing for unemployment; Dr. Stacie L. Walton, who noted the alarming rise in COVID-19-related deaths among African Americans; Dr. Turner-Lloveras of UCLA, who discussed the impact of the Trump administration’s new public charge rule and Dr. Tung Nguyen of the University of California in San Francisco, who provided an overview of the pandemic.

Talbot said the packages passed by Congress so far have not provided enough economic support or health coverage for immigrants including those who have new green cards, Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and others.

“We’re really concerned that during this crisis people are not going to be able to access the health care that they need because they are not covered by emergency Medicaid. We really need to make sure that everyone has access to testing and treatment — people with green cards, DACA folks, those with temporary protected status, are  in mixed status families, and the undocumented. Without that, we are just putting all of our communities at risk,” Talbot explained.

Kerr elaborated: “Undocumented individuals should be given as well as many of them are doing essential services as farm workers, store and restaurant employees doing deliveries and as  healthcare workers. We need to make sure these folks are able to pay their rent and able to stay in their homes.”

Dr. Turner-Lloveras stated that in order to really contain the coronavirus COVID-19, “We’re going to have to make sure that everybody has equal access to care and we need to stop detainment of immigrants who are seeking health care.”

“ICE is already supposed to have known not to be at places where people might be seeking care for whatever reasons. It’s been shown that they have intercepted migrants who are seeking care and that needs to stop. We need to eliminate overcrowding in our jails and in our detention centers,” Tuner-Lloveras maintained.

On the economic impact payment (EIP) of the stimulus package, IRS Deputy Commissioner Lough clarified that U.S. residents can receive an EIP of up to $1,200 for individuals and are head of households or $2,400 for married couple filing jointly.

There is an income limit of $75,000 for individuals, $112,500 for head of households and $150,000 for married/joint filer qualify for the stimulus check. After that, there’s a reduction of $5 for each hundred in excess of $75,000.

Single filers earning more than $99,000 or joint filers (no children) getting more than $198,000 will not get a stimulus check of $1,200.

Lough explained, “There are a number of people who are not required to file a return because their taxable income is below the standard deduction. We do not have the direct deposit information on them, so we really ask them to provide us at the IRS the information on the bank account where their EIPs should be sent.”

Lough also strongly advised to watch out for scams and fraud by simply “not giving private information to anybody who says I can get the payment form for from the IRS for you” as this, most likely, is from scammers

For his part, Employment Rights Project Staff Attorney Sanchez stated that unemployment insurance is a federally funded benefit that is granted through Employment Development Department (EDD) and is generally given to those who have left his job by no fault of their own.

“There is a strict limit for undocumented immigrants, whether or not they’ve been paying taxes. They are simply not going to be eligible for any unemployment benefits. This includes all of the supplemental benefits that were passed through Congress for coronavirus relief,” Sanchez clarified.

However, “State disability insurance and paid family leave in California are benefits that are fully state-administered.  It is important that undocumented immigrants know that they may be eligible for these benefits if they have been paying taxes on the payroll and if their pay stub shows that they have been paying into this system.”

Sanchez advised undocumented workers to use paper application rather than online form and leave social security number blank. EDD will follow up and ask them to provide pay stubs or W2 to show that they are the persons paying those taxes.

As part of his overview of the pandemic, Dr Nguyen focused on some very stark and alarming disparities emerging in places were COVID-19 data have been reported by race.

“In Chicago, 69% of the deaths are among black residents who make up only 30% of the city’s population. Only 14% of Michigan’s population is black but has 33% of the death cases and in Louisiana 70% of deaths statewide are among black residents and they only make up 32% of the state’s population. Similar disparities are coming out of North Carolina, Washington, DC and Milwaukee,” observed Nguyen.

Nguyen added that if the shelter-in-place stay-at-home orders were to stop “we would be back to where started.”

“Should we wear masks outside? The answer is yes, as long as it is not diverting needed supplies from healthcare workers. This is primarily because people infected with Covid-19 may not have any symptoms but are shedding the virus,” Nguyen insisted.

“On the vaccine front a second vaccine from Inovio is going to phase-one trial. This is to assess safety and antibody response. Whether with these vaccines or any of the future vaccines are going to work will take about 12 to 18 months.”

Dr. Watson supported Nguyen, adding that measures are already working to flatten the curve  and slow the spread of the virus.

“Sheltering in place works. Social distancing works as does wearing a mask. There are many people of color who usually work outside as they cannot work inside the home. So these measures of protecting yourself become even more important,” Watson exhorted.