Not once have I heard single journalist or policy pundit asked the question: what about undocumented workers? What are they supposed to do now for continuing income?
What kind of public health policy is it that that doesn’t deal with them? And how will that affect all of us?
THE VIRUS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT SOMEONE’S IMMIGRATION STATUS.
Citizens and legal residents are now able to stay home and safe on the backs of undocumented workers, who are still harvesting and making our food.
This is dystopian.
No one is talking about it.
Please share widely!
Our undocumented workers already live in the shadows. So , the attitude of many seems to be : “out of sight, out of mind.”
This is an abject failure of leadership at the national level and all the more reason to vote for comprehensive change on November 3.
Every time an expert in the media uses the words, “everyone”, “people”, and “all taxpayers”, vis a vis potential payments to individuals to boost the economy and blunt the spread of the virus by keeping people home, they omit undocumented workers. Because without checks going out to all persons who have had payroll taxes deducted over the past several years, they will be omitted, whether intentional or not.
Undocumented workers are taxpayers. Undocumented workers are people. Undocumented workers are “everyone”. They are about to get nothing from the government. Nothing.
And yes. They do pay taxes. In fact, they’re keeping Social Security for American seniors AFLOAT with their payroll taxes, that are withdrawn from all paychecks whether or not the social security numbers are valid.
Another issue is resident persons, some of who may be citizens, others on visas and yet others who may be undocumented, who speak neither English nor Spanish. With the internet they can probably learn about the pandemic in their native language, but they may be limited in what they can find out about local conditions, rules and circumstances. This could be deleterious for them, as they may not be able to plan and purchase appropriately, but also for them and others if they don’t know to follow ”social distancing” and head out, get sick and infect others.