Advocates push California Gov. Gavin Newsom to include all undocumented in stimulus aid
Under California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal, some undocumented workers would be eligible for stimulus financial relief, but a large number of them would be left out of any cash assistance, despite being the most affected during the pandemic, researchers and advocates say.
The governor’s budget proposal released earlier this month includes $2.4 billion in the “Golden State Stimulus” for low-income families. Those who would be eligible for the $600 state payment include low-income workers who were eligible to receive an Earned Income Tax Credit in 2019, as well as undocumented workers who filed their taxes last year with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, commonly known as ITIN.
It’s estimated that only anywhere between 350,000 to 380,000 undocumented workers have signed up for an ITIN, said Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. It’s difficult to get an accurate estimate on how many undocumented workers don’t have an ITIN.
“At the very least there are several hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers that don’t have ITINs and would be left behind with the governor’s budget proposal,” said Edward Flores, an associate professor at UC Merced and researcher with the school’s Community and Labor Center. “It’s a tragedy that people... in immediate need” won’t get the help they should.
Advocates say they are rolling out a campaign to push for all undocumented workers to be included. But they say any changes to the proposed budget would need to happen soon as the governor would like to reach a final version quickly to start distributing the funds as early as February. Undocumented workers have been left out of the two federal rounds of stimulus aid.
While some undocumented workers in California received assistance last year through a $125 million fund, advocates at the time said the help wasn’t enough. Though, some critics have maintained any coronavirus relief should only go toward U.S. citizens.
Meanwhile, many immigrants have not signed up for an ITIN because “they have a real fear of government,” especially after the last four years of anti-immigration rhetoric under outgoing President Donald Trump, said Veronica Alvarado, deputy director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center.
On top of that, she said, the current wait time for an undocumented person to get an ITIN is 11 to 17 weeks.
“We need to do better,” Alvarado said of excluding undocumented workers who don’t have an ITIN.
H.D. Palmer, chief budget spokesman for the state’s Department of Finance, responded to an inquiry from The Bee on behalf of the governor’s administration.
“The Governor’s goal in the Golden State Stimulus is to deliver rapid relief to those lower-income Californians hit hardest by the COVID-19 Recession — and to do so beyond just those who received an Earned Income Tax Credit last year,” he wrote in an email. “By including ITIN taxpayers receiving a state EITC in 2021, we can provide more needed relief to an additional quarter of a million taxpayers.”
That would still leave at least a third of undocumented workers behind for the rest of the year with no assistance, Padilla said.
“It’s very concerning that such a large group of workers would be left out,” she said.
Workers share stories of hunger
During a community meeting Alvarado’s organization recently hosted, participants were asked how they would best describe 2020. A woman’s response was: “Hunger,” Alvarado said. Another woman recently called Alvarado’s organization asking what she should do because her employer was not going to pay her if she stayed home.
During a different meeting, Alvarado said, a mother of two shared she was encouraging her children not to get out of bed because when they got up, the more energy they had, and the hungrier they became.
“That enraged me,” Alvarado said, breaking down in tears.
The UC Merced Community and Labor Center conducted a survey in the rural parts of the central San Joaquin Valley. Researchers gathered information on demographics, age, sex and race for 301 people.
The survey found that three in 10 households did not have any food, and didn’t know how to access a food bank or food stamps, Flores said. The research, he said, also found that 44% of respondents had experienced an income reduction since the pandemic began, and only a 28% of them had access to emergency paid leave.
“The story that it tells us is that the pandemic is really affecting households in the Valley economically,” he said.
Center leaders expect to make the survey public soon.
Central Valley hardest hit
Of all the regions in the state, the Central Valley has the highest percentage of immigrants who are non-citizens. Padilla said the Central Valley is also home to 50% of all farmworkers and a large number of meat processing workers.
As a result, researchers say, more undocumented workers without ITINs are likely to reside in the Central Valley than in other parts of the state.
“If we are trying to get money into the hands of people to prevent the spread of COVID, to help the people that are the neediest, to help the people that will spend the money and stimulate our economy, then we wouldn’t be leaving out workers who don’t have an ITIN,” Flores said.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Advocates push California Gov. Gavin Newsom to include all undocumented in stimulus aid."
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