Charles Krupa/AP Photo
The CARES Act bars mixed-status immigrant families from receiving coronavirus economic impact payments like this one that went to a New Hampshire family.
It is no secret that the relief package that President Trump signed on March 27 excludes undocumented immigrants and their spouses. But there have been fewer reports on another devastating aspect of the CARES Act: its exclusion of immigrants’ dependent children. On Tuesday, immigrant rights advocates filed a class action suit in federal District Court on behalf of the citizen children of undocumented immigrants who have been barred from receiving coronavirus relief assistance, arguing that the act discriminates against the children and violates their Fifth Amendment rights to equal protection.
Civil rights groups had already filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration on behalf of the one million citizens married to immigrants without Social Security numbers, who are also excluded.
Of the eight million citizens who live with undocumented family members and may be ineligible for a stimulus payment, at least 4.1 million are citizen children. Although they have American citizenship, any children listed on taxes filed with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) (instead of the Social Security numbers that Americans citizens and permanent residents use) cannot receive payments because a parent is undocumented.
These deliberate oversights are a slap in the face to taxpaying immigrants who are overrepresented in industries devastated by the economic shutdown, including restaurants, hotels, and cleaning services. Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for unemployment, and a stimulus check could have provided them with some relief.
These mixed-status families will miss out on much-needed financial support. Two citizens raising three dependent children are eligible for stimulus payments of up to $3900. If they lose their jobs, each person is eligible for an additional weekly check of $600 in addition to their state unemployment benefits. However, two undocumented immigrants supporting three citizen children will receive nothing.
The children of immigrants have long faced particular disadvantages because of the vitriol directed at their parents. They are less likely to have insurance than children of citizen parents, and less likely to be enrolled in preschools. Because their parents are locked out of higher-paying jobs, they are more likely to grow up in poverty and see little socioeconomic advancement in American society.
Prior to the pandemic, the administration’s policies made an already-precarious situation for immigrant families worse. In October 2018, the federal government changed its “public charge policies” that dictate how immigrants may adjust their legal status. For the first time ever, the new regulations implemented in February take into account an applicant’s use of public programs such as food stamps, housing assistance, and Medicaid—participation in any of these programs would jeopardize their legal status.
Families rushed to abandon their benefits before the regulations took effect. Immigrant parents declined to enroll their citizen children in Medicaid due to concerns this would affect their legal status. Others took their children off Medicaid or decided against renewing it. Food stamp programs in states with large immigrant populations reported declines in participation. Immigrant parents also avoided other forms of assistance the government did not specifically penalize, such as food banks, supplemental nutrition for pregnant women, and free school lunches.
In response to these harsh federal actions, local groups have launched grassroots campaigns to encourage people to gift their stimulus dollars to help undocumented families. In Southern California, the 805 UndocuFund—which once helped undocumented families stricken by the 2018 and 2019 wildfires—assists the area’s mixed-status families facing financial hardship. An organizer with Sanctuary DMV, an immigrant advocacy group in the Washington, D.C., area, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for families through a GoFundMe campaign. A San Francisco teachers’ union is seeking donations from its members for people who do not qualify for federal stimulus aid.
Some cities and states have stepped in with their own assistance plans. Chicago included undocumented immigrants in its program to help residents with rent and mortgage payments. Minneapolis created a loan forgiveness program open to all renters, regardless of legal status, and San Francisco established a fund specifically for undocumented immigrants who have lost their jobs.
Although federal law excludes undocumented immigrants from unemployment benefits, New Jersey created a Temporary Lost Wage Unemployment Program to provide benefits for lost wages to workers, including undocumented immigrants. And last month, California became the first state to provide economic relief to undocumented immigrants: Individual cash payments of $500.
To grant children in mixed-status families equal life chances, more cities and states must follow suit. But ultimately, the federal government must provide coronavirus financial assistance and eliminate the punitive “public charge” policies so that undocumented parents can enroll their children in the programs that they need.
The Senate claimed that the CARES Act prioritizes “citizens” over undocumented immigrants, but the plight of mixed-status families lays bare the illogic of American immigration policies. Excluding citizens because of their family members’ immigration status is cruel—and children end up as collateral damage in a particularly ugly round of political warfare during a harrowing national public-health crisis.
