Coronavirus / Covid-19: Impact on Immigrants

As immigrant workers and families with low incomes across the country are disproportionately affected by the economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, state and local communities are stepping in to fill the gaps left by limited federal relief efforts. Not only do these efforts need to be available and tailored to immigrant community needs, but they also must focus on creating effective outreach to immigrant audiences.

The COVID-19 crisis has heightened the consequences of recent policies that have deterred immigrants from receiving federal safety net assistance and other supports. 

The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be one of the worst economic recessions in American history, and the federal government has rightly taken preliminary steps to mitigate the harm for working-class Americans. As a result of the first three stimulus bills, some economic relief is on the horizon for the average American. Unfortunately, there has been relatively little done to provide relief to a critical yet often overlooked segment of the American labor force: undocumented immigrants

Amidst travel restrictions and other government responses to the growing COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of March 17, 2020, temporarily suspended refugee resettlement departures—the actual travel of a refugee from their initial country of asylum to the country where they will be resettled. In addition to travel disruptions, the UNHCR cited concerns that refugees would be placed at a higher risk of contracting and transmitting the virus if they continued to travel as reasons behind their decision.

The coronavirus pandemic has reached the processing plants where workers typically stand elbow-to-elbow to do the low-wage work of cutting, deboning and packing the chicken and beef that Americans savor. Some plants have offered financial incentives to keep them on the job, but the virus’s swift spread is causing illness and forcing plants to close.

Every day when Carmelita finishes her shift in the strawberry fields of California’s central coast, she sprays herself down with Lysol, takes off the handkerchief she uses to protect her face, and tucks it in a plastic bag before getting in her car. She’s the sole provider for her two young sons and can’t afford to miss a day on the job.