The CARES Act Fails Immigrants in the U.S.

On March 25th, the United States Congress passed H.R. 748 (the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act), a third-of-its-kind relief package to provide assistance to U.S. citizens. 

But like the preceding two COVID-19 relief bills (the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act), the sweeping bill addresses many aspects of COVID-19, but noticeably, and unacceptably, neglects this nation’s tax-paying immigrant population. 

Congress must address these gaps in the next round of legislation. It is both unacceptable and irresponsible that any tax-paying person be forgotten, left behind, or purposely left out of legislation aimed at ending a global pandemic.

Below, we’ll discuss how the CARES Act fails immigrants in the U.S. in greater detail. 

What is the CARES Act

According to the official language used in Senate Bill 3548 (S.3548), the purpose of the CARES Act is “To provide emergency assistance and health care response for individuals, families, and businesses affected by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.” 

But what does that mean exactly? 

In short, the CARES Act was devised as a way to stimulate the U.S. economy and offer aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the Bill are provisions that impact and assist individuals, small businesses, big corporations, hospitals and public health, federal safety net, state and local governments, and education. 

And it’s in the assistance of  “individuals” that the CARES Act has failed immigrants in the U.S., but first let’s look at where the money for the CARES Act is coming from. 

How is the CARES Act Being Funded

The CARES Act is being paid by selling $2 trillion in U.S. government bonds to investors. And without getting too technical, many economists don’t see taking that debt on as a problem. These repayments will be paid back over a many-years-long period and likely won’t impact the Federal debt or U.S. economy very much. 

But how will that debt get paid back in the long run? 

Generally speaking, the Government pays back debt by either increasing taxes or decreasing spending. Back at the beginning of March, when we were in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Government spending was projected to rise during 2020 and 2021. If that model holds, the burden of paying off the debt from the CARES Act will fall upon the taxpayers. 

Now that we understand how the CARES Act is being funded (and how it will likely be paid off), let’s turn our attention back to how the Act has been geared towards assisting individuals during this pandemic.

CARES Act Benefits for Individuals  

For individuals, the CARES Act offers several provisions that either put money directly into people’s pockets or reduces the amount they have to spend during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three provisions of the bill, in particular, fail to provide adequate, and sometimes any, relief for immigrants in the U.S:

• Access to Testing
• Cash Rebates
• Unemployment Insurance

The United State’s ability to combat the COVID-19 epidemic and protect those who live within its borders is wholly dependent on the country’s ability to suppress the virus. 

That means protecting our immigrants, who make up nearly 14% of the U.S. population, too.

That means protecting 1.7 million immigrant medical and healthcare workers and the  27,000 DACA recipients working as doctors, nurses, and paramedics, too.

But the CARES Act doesn’t provide enough and in some instances anything, for these people.  

Access to Testing

As mentioned above, the primary, and only, way that the COVID-19 pandemic will be ended is by suppressing the virus for all people in the U.S., including immigrants. Yet, thus far, all three COVID-19-related bills have failed to provide meaningful access to immigrants. 

The first bill, The Families First Act, made COVID-19 related medical services available under Medicaid, but the Public Charge rule is extremely prohibitive to immigrants being able to access Medicaid, meaning that the vast majority of immigrants could not access those services.  

The CARES Act does not include any provisions to address this gap, that tens of millions of immigrants in the U.S. currently do not have access to testing — a truth that actively works against the suppression of the pandemic. 

Cash Rebates

One of the most touted aspects of the CARES has been the cash rebate program the bill created that put up to $1200 (or more in some cases) into the pockets of Americans who are struggling because of COVID-19. 

These rebates are dependent on a number of criteria, chief among those criteria is that recipients must have a United States social security number.

This is, at the very least, a major oversight and gap in the bill because many immigrants do not have a social security number and are not required to have one. Instead, these immigrants have what’s called an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), which they use to pay taxes in the U.S. 

Worse still, an issue within the structure of the bill can cause the loss of cash rebates for immigrants with social security numbers. ITIN users file jointly with a spouse or child with an SSN, everyone in the household will be denied access to the cash assistance.

So, while these immigrants are paying their fair share of taxes, they are still being left behind by the CARES Act. 

Unemployment Insurance

A third glaring gap in the CARES Act is its handling of enhanced unemployment benefits for people in the U.S.

According to federal law, individuals seeking unemployment benefits of any kind must maintain work authorization up to the time of their claim and through the unemployment period. 

Under normal circumstances — when work permit extensions are regularly being processed — this wouldn’t be an issue. 

However, the closure of USCIS because of COVID-19 and the resultant halting of work permit extension processing has created an issue for immigrants that the CARES Act does not address. 

At present, more than 6 million Americans have filed for unemployment because of COVID-19 related layoffs. Immigrant workers who lose their employment because of COVID-19 are at risk of having their work permits lapse, which would disqualify them from accessing unemployment benefits. And with USCIS not currently processing applications, there is no way for these people to renew their work authorization and access unemployment benefits. 

Final Thoughts

By now, it should be clear just how badly the CARES Act (and COVID-19-related legislation, in general) has failed our nation’s immigrant population. And considering that immigrants in the U.S. make up more nearly 14% of the population and in 2018, those citizens paid more than $4.5 billion in taxes — yet they are not protected by the CARES Act in the same ways as non-immigrant taxpayers. 

And considering that it’ll be the taxpayers — including that 14% of the population comprised of immigrants — who will end up paying for the CARES Act in the long-run, it is a complete failure of that bill that such a significant portion must pay for it but cannot benefit from its provisions. 

Congress must address these gaps in forthcoming legislation. It is unbelievable that any tax-paying person is forgotten, left behind, or purposely left out of legislation aimed at ending a global pandemic. It is irresponsible and unacceptable.  

It’s a commonly held misconception that immigrants in the U.S. unfairly benefit from the social services that “hard-working American taxpayers” fund. But the truth is, it’s American citizens who disproportionately benefit from immigrant taxpayers who cannot access the services their taxes will pay for.

Frank Gogol

I’m a firm believer that information is the key to financial freedom. On the Stilt Blog, I write about the complex topics — like finance, immigration, and technology — to help immigrants make the most of their lives in the U.S. Our content and brand have been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and more.

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