Children of illegal immigrants with US citizenship sued, without financial assistance due to coronavirus

On May 5, US citizens whose parents did not have documents filed a federal class action lawsuit for being excluded from the $ 2 trillion coronavirus relief package, writes NPR.

Photo: Shutterstock

The lawsuit was filed with the Maryland Federal Court by the Institute for Constitutional Defense at Georgetown University Law Center with CASA, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization serving Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. The plaintiffs were seven children aged 7 months to 9 years and their parents.

“My daughter is a U.S. citizen,” said Carmen, a mother of one in the lawsuit who did not want to give her full name because of her immigration status.

“Like every other U.S. citizen child, my daughter deserves equal rights, especially during this pandemic,” Carmen said. “This is injustice.”

As job losses across the country continue to increase due to the pandemic, the Federal Coronavirus Aid Act, passed on March 27, provides the basic financial needs of millions of people who pay taxes using their social security number, but not their individual tax ID , or the ITIN used by Karen and many other illegal immigrants.

Each person eligible for federal assistance receives a check for $ 1200 if their income is less than $ 75, or $ 000 if the couple filed taxes together. If the income is higher, the amount changes. Children of individual taxpayers are also eligible for $ 2400 per child under the age of 500.

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Carmen said she pays income taxes every year using her ITIN. Before the pandemic, she worked two jobs in the food industry—one at a food service company and the other at a pizzeria.

“This is the first time I’ve been left at home without an income,” she said. “I use my voice to advocate for my daughter.”

Carmen came to the United States from Lima, Peru, in 2001. She said she was worried about her future and the future of the child during the pandemic.

“This is the difficult reality we live in,” she said, pleading with government officials not to abandon such children during the crisis. “I hope their hearts will soften and their minds will open to see that our children are also the future of the country.”

Mary McCord is the main class action lawyer.

“The lawsuit is based on equal protection violations of the CARES Act, which discriminates against and excludes American children,” said McCord, a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center. “It’s one thing to discriminate against undocumented immigrants, which is what our system does, but it’s another thing entirely to discriminate against children who are U.S. citizens.”

McCord estimates there are millions of undocumented immigrant children in the country. The lawyer says these young people are being "treated like second-class citizens" by denying them CARES Act benefits.

More importantly, according to McCord, it’s pointless to deny these U.S. citizens assistance benefits because they are already eligible for other community service programs, such as Supplemental Nutrition Support or SNAP benefits, and temporary assistance for families in need , or TANF.

“Under the Constitution, U.S. citizens cannot be discriminated against on the basis of foreign origin,” McCord said. “These children did not choose who they would have, and yet they are treated differently than other US citizens.” And that's why many other public benefit programs still cover U.S. citizen children, because it's discriminatory to do otherwise."

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Nicholas Katz, CASA Senior Legal Services Manager, said the implementation of the CARES Act is contrary to promises.

“The purpose of the CARES Act is to help the most vulnerable members of our society during this difficult time,” Katz said. “Immigrants make up nearly a fifth of [frontline] workers during this pandemic. It is absolutely outrageous that we rely on immigrant families to care for our loved ones and help us with basic supplies, yet we deny their children the support they are entitled to as U.S. citizens.”

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Foundation sued the federal government due to denial of coronavirus assistance to US citizens married to immigrants without social security numbers.
• According to the adopted package of financial assistance, there are categories of people who, despite the matching income level, will not receive assistance. Their list is here.
• The topic of government support is actively used by scammers. The schemes used by them and ways to protect themselves from them - here to register:.
• On April 15, the IRS launched an online tool to help you enter your account information, track payments and receive money as soon as possible. For details on how to use it, read here.
• Most Americans will receive federal government aid payments for coronavirus automatically, but there are a few reasonsfor which payment may be delayed.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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