Local immigrant worker advocates are calling on California to close the gap between unemployment benefits paid out to documented and undocumented individuals throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) is part of the Safety Net for All Coalition, which seeks to include undocumented workers in state unemployment benefits. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recently announced California Comeback Plan would give undocumented families $500 to $1,000 in stimulus money, but the Safety Net for All Coalition says this isn’t enough to remedy the existing disparities. CAUSE Policy Director Lucas Zucker said the average documented Californian who lost work over the past year got $13,000 in federal unemployment insurance, while immigrant families only had access to small, one-time payments.
“It’s really a gaping disparity,” Zucker said. “New York created this excluded workers fund that was really aimed at filling the gap in federal unemployment benefits. That provided up to $15,000 for undocumented workers in New York who had lost their jobs to the pandemic. So that’s what we’re looking to the state to provide for undocumented Californians here who have been excluded from unemployment, beyond just the stimulus.”
While Newsom’s proposed stimulus checks for undocumented families are a step in the right direction, Zucker said it’s not enough.
“Ultimately we’re talking about folks who simply can’t pay the rent, because a $500 check doesn’t even come close to paying one month’s rent anywhere in California,” he said. “For people who have lost their job for months on end without the ability to have any kind of safety net to help them keep a home over their kids’ head and put food on their family’s table, that’s simply not enough.”
The coalition is requesting that California provide up to $13,000 on average for immigrant workers who lost their jobs, the same amount that the average unemployed Californian has received since the pandemic started.
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) said he believes “essential workers are essential workers”—regardless of their immigration status.
“You can’t take their blood, sweat, and labor to help keep our economy going, and then say, ‘Oh no, we’re not going to recognize them because of their immigration status,’” Carbajal said. “I think the state of California is recognizing that through the Legislature and the governor. They’re recognizing that if these people are cleaning, are the ones working in the fields providing food for our tables, for all of us to enjoy, they’re essential workers.”
Zucker pointed to California’s $75 billion budget surplus as evidence that the state has the means to do more for undocumented, unemployed workers.
“That’s been driven by massive income gains at the top of the spectrum in California,” he said. “At the same time as we’ve seen the pandemic increase inequality at the top, it’s really increased at the bottom. The people who were struggling before the pandemic are struggling even more now.”
The Safety Net for All Coalition came together at the beginning of the pandemic, Zucker said. The concept of creating a safety net for undocumented workers affected by job loss started with initiatives like 805 Undocufund, and Safety Net for All aims to find a more systemic solution.
“We can try to raise money in all of our different communities … but we know it’s not going to be enough,” he said. “The need is far too massive to fill the gap of this hole in our safety net, as a nation.”
This article appears in May 20-27, 2021.