California’s undocumented workers are receiving millions in coronavirus aid. Will it help?
California had approved more than 100,000 applications from undocumented workers seeking relief aid during the coronavirus pandemic as of Wednesday morning, and distributed over $40 million, an official said.
Tuesday marked the deadline for undocumented workers to apply for a one-time payment of $500 per person or $1,500 per household from the $125 million disaster relief fund announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom in April. Undocumented workers flooded the state’s website on the first day they were able to apply for the aid, causing it to crash for several hours.
Of the $125 million, a total of $75 million comes from the taxpayers, while the other $50 million comes from philanthropic donations.
Experts had said the fund would only be enough to assist about 150,000 undocumented workers. The state has roughly 2 million undocumented residents.
Scott Murray, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services, said all 150,000 applications had been received.
Twelve nonprofits across the state were tasked with distributing the funds. Now that the deadline has passed, Murray said, the organizations are focused on finalizing the remaining applications and distributing the prepaid cards.
As of Wednesday morning, over 103,000 applications had been approved, and over 83,000 prepaid cards, totaling $41 million, had been distributed, he said.
“We expect that card disbursement will continue to increase significantly over the coming weeks,” he said. “We appreciate the public’s patience as the nonprofit organizations are working hard to finish processing, verifying, and approving applications as quickly as possible.”
A June analysis by UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center found that undocumented workers in the state have been hit the hardest with job losses during the pandemic. An estimated 852,065 noncitizens lost their jobs in the state, including 357,867 undocumented workers, according to the analysis.
The report also found California’s job recovery is one of the slowest in the nation.
Several organizations have mobilized efforts to fill the gaps left by insufficient state funding for undocumented workers, those left out of federal aid, and others who were struggling financially even before the pandemic hit.
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 3:02 PM.
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