Undocumented Parents Have Weathered a Pandemic With No Saftey Net
Source: Loria, M (2022, February 10). Undocumented Parents Have Weathered a Pandemic With No Safety Net. Washington Post.
From the struggles of remote learning, being separated from loved ones, and the stress of job loss and wage cuts, the coronavirus pandemic has presented its fair share of challenges for many families across the United States. However, the undocumented immigrant community has faced an additional sense of devastation as they have few places to turn to for help during these difficult times.
Like all citizens, most undocumented workers get government taxes taken out of their paychecks. However, with no legal papers, they are unable to qualify for the federal aid that these taxes provide. This discrepancy was exploited during the pandemic as undocumented immigrants were excluded from most kinds of government programs that helped keep families afloat, including stimulus payments, food stamps, and government healthcare such as Medicare and Medicaid. With the service industry, one of the primary employers of undocumented workers, taking a major hit during the pandemic, many had no source of income for an extended period. While normally those unemployed would be entitled to compensation, because of their illegal status undocumented immigrants were prevented from receiving aid through unemployment insurance. Undocumented parents of citizen children were eligible to access food stamps and receive the third round of stimulus payment (not the first two), yet only the children received their portion of the payment, not the whole family.
As education moved to online instruction, those that were still able to work now faced the additional challenge of providing daily childcare. Finding care was not an easy task as undocumented parents were limited to caregivers who didn’t require a social security number or health insurance. If external care was provided, it proved to be a major expense that eliminated a large chunk of disposable income. Thus, many within the undocumented community had to rely on the donations of others to survive. As immigrants provide an overall net benefit to the US government by stimulating economic growth, it seems unjust that the government would not set aside political agendas and lend assistance to these crucial members of our society during the pandemic.
5 thoughts on “Undocumented Parents Have Weathered a Pandemic With No Saftey Net”
Very interesting article Riley! There has always been a large focus on illegal immigrants unable to find jobs without social security, however, another important factor to consider is those with children that can’t afford or get access to proper childcare. Not having government support for children of illegal immigrants makes it that much harder for those trying to find and keep working in the labor market. I am interested to hear ways of how the government could help to accommodate those with children, but I understand how that may be difficult given their status. Lots to think about here, great job again!
Very interesting insights here Riley. I definitely agree that the families, and especially the children, should have received aid from the US government during these unprecedented times. I am curious to know if and/or how public school systems throughout the United States attempted to help families that now had to care for their kids on weekdays during virtual instruction? Were their any initiatives to provide meals to students or set up structured child care for families with two working parents? If these types of things were managed better at the local level, I would imagine that they could have included undocumented immigrants and helped them get through the challenging times.
Great article that focuses on a specific topic that is often not in the discussion! A common argument among those who are anti-immigrant is that they steal jobs and money, but the models we’ve learned from class show that that is not entirely the case when looking at the data. For instance, you point out that undocumented workers pay taxes and are required to file tax returns, but they don’t reap the benefits the money goes into. In one of my sociology classes, we’ve discussed how undocumented parents who have children in the US, and are therefore citizens, won’t apply for some of the benefits available to their children. This is because they’re afraid they might face deportation since they’re unauthorized. To your point Michael, I remember when we were sent home in the middle of the spring and noticed that my public school district provided time slots for people to go pick up to-go meals for kids. A lot of local spots also appeared where volunteers gave out boxes with basic necessities. Anyone that showed up could receive a box, and no one needed to prove/show identification. My hometown has a significant immigrant population, and they were able to benefit from local assistance like this.
I really enjoyed reading this interesting article Riley! I agree with the comments that all undocumented families, especially with young children, should have been able to receive aid from the government during the pandemic. Undocumented workers especially experienced disruption from unemployment during the pandemic because they work primarily in the service sector, which was hit the hardest during the pandemic. I appreciate that you emphasized that undocumented workers do pay taxes and contribute to social security because I think that is a huge misconception among Americans, so I am glad you made that clear in your report. I used to volunteer with young kids, many of whom had undocumented parents who worked multiple jobs, and needed childcare after school but couldn’t afford it. The nonprofit that I volunteered with provided childcare and tutoring for these students for free, but they weren’t able to provide this essential service during the pandemic, so I imagine that the need during the pandemic was especially large without government assistance and without nonprofits to help close those gaps.
I really enjoyed reading this article. I totally agree with how unjust the situation is, especially since undocumented immigrants are taxpayers as well. I think the problem with the childcare industry is especially pressing because of how vital it is to maintaining a large portion of the workforce in a lot of industries. It would be interesting to see what changes will happen to childcare in terms of policy and subsidies due to this massive shortage, the full brunt of which we have not even began to experience I think.