More undocumented families could receive COVID-19 aid under Gavin Newsom’s new plan
Many undocumented families in California will be eligible to receive stimulus relief aid under a deal advocate leaders say is the first step toward creating a permanent wage replacement program for this population.
Under a state stimulus package agreement reached by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature, undocumented workers will be eligible for coronavirus relief aid.
“This fight isn’t over,” Veronica Alvarado, deputy director of the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, told The Bee. “It’s always been our goal to create a permanent income wage replacement for our community, and we are not going to lay off now.”
The Golden State Stimulus Plan announced Wednesday broadens the eligibility of families that would qualify for the aid, despite their immigration status. A total of 5.7 million Californians are expected to receive aid.
Low-income families receiving an earned income tax credit for 2020 will receive a one-time payment of $600, according to the deal. Undocumented families with an Individual Tax Identification Number, commonly known as ITIN, who didn’t receive the federal $1,200 cash assistance, will also be eligible for a one-time $600 payment.
According to the agreement, households with an ITIN, making less than $75,000, will receive the $600.
Researchers at the UC Merced Community and Labor Center estimate that about $154 million in benefits will go out to undocumented workers with an ITIN who receive the earned income tax credit and also those who make less than $75,000 per year.
Additionally, Wednesday’s deal was expanded to include a one-time $600 grant to families enrolled in the CalWORKS program or who receive benefits from the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants and recipients of supplemental security income programs.
In January, advocates and researchers raised concerns over the original stimulus package. At the time, they said not every undocumented worker has an ITIN for various reasons, including the delay to get one and due to fear of the government. While they said it was difficult to get an accurate estimate on how many undocumented workers didn’t have an ITIN, they said at the very least “several hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers” would be left behind under that proposal.
H.D. Palmer, the chief budget spokesman for the state’s Department of Finance, said undocumented Californians without ITINs aren’t eligible for the $600 payments, but there are other aid options available.
The original plan only included 2019 taxpayers who received an earned income tax credit in 2020 and ITIN filers who were eligible to receive a tax credit in 2021.
“In addition to the tax relief, the agreement announced (Wednesday) now also provides a $600 one-time grant payment to low-income Californians enrolled in several programs — one of which is CAPI, or the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants,” he said in a statement to The Bee.
These grants will be issued to each recipient, not couples, who are eligible for CAPI, he said.
“While we don’t have an exact number (of) CAPI recipients who will receive a grant, we built the fiscal estimate for this grant program off of the CAPI caseload that was projected last month in the Governor’s Budget, which is just over 14,700,” he said.
“These other ways that assistance is going to be expanded are important measures for providing relief for families that are experiencing economic hardship during the pandemic,” said Edward Flores, an associate professor at UC Merced and researcher with the school’s Community and Labor Center.
Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, said she hopes this will be an opportunity for undocumented workers to learn about the benefits of having an ITIN and for officials to be informed of the importance of “there being an active effort to mitigate that backlog of ITIN filers” and allow more to sign up.
Alvarado described this action by the Legislature as a “very bold first step.”
“We definitely view it as a first step to providing necessary relief for our community,” she said. “It also shows us that California, when we think creatively and when we are bold, that we can make these types of resources available to our community, especially to the most excluded community, to the most systematically marginalized community, and really, to the community that needs these services the absolute most.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 4:31 PM.
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