Even tax paying Immigrants boxed out from CARES Act benefits

Jackie Vimo of the National Immigration Law Center is fighting for the rights of the immigrants during the coronavirus pandemic. She has been fighting for the immigrants for over three decades. Vimo said that the immigrants were mostly working as nurses and in the medical field. “The CARES Act really cut them out of both relief and health care efforts.”

Most of the immigrants work in the field of food delivery, restaurants, labour, and farm work. The government of the United States of America passes a COVID-19 relief bill, the CARES Act, of $2 trillion in March. According to the bill, the residents who do not have a Social Security number will not get the relief.

Vimo said, “The CARES Act cuts out millions of people, either because they do not have a Social Security number or they have married to someone who does not have a Social Security number.” The Act also includes huge medical and unemployment benefits. The insurance companies will cover the expenses of the COVID-19 testing of the individuals who qualify for getting the benefits.

Vimo said that almost all immigrants would be boxed out from those benefits. Vimo criticized the bill by saying that it was inappropriate from the public health perspective. She added that bill did not make sense from the economic perspective. She was worried about the immigrants who pay taxes, but they would not get the relief benefits.

Kevin Cramer, a US Senator from North Dakota, said, “We are spending a lot more money than we have right now.” Cramer said that they prioritized American citizens in terms of spending the relief money. He added that the US economy and the full citizens would get the benefits first. Cramer said that they would look at immigrants who pay taxes after that. But Vimo said that the immigrants paid billions of dollars in taxes. According to her, the ITIN filers paid $24 billion in federal taxes in 2015 alone. Still, the immigrants will not get the stimulus checks.