Coping with the Crisis: Immigrant Families Face ‘el Coronavirus’ and the Broken System That Has Left Them So Vulnerable
As the Coronavirus crisis continues to produce alarming numbers of both reported cases and deaths, there is another number that should be kept in mind: the nearly 11 million immigrants in the U.S. who lack legal status and often face limited access to the sort of medical care that can keep them healthy in these troubled times.
This is a particularly significant issue in my own home base of Los Angeles County: of our roughly ten million residents, nearly 900,000 are undocumented immigrants. Just as significant: living with them are another 850,000 U.S.-born family members and another 275,000 lawful permanent residents (LPRs, that is, immigrants with so-called “green cards”). Totaling up everyone, that means that roughly a fifth of people living in L.A. County are either undocumented or living with an undocumented family member.
The significant share of Angelenos touched by immigrant status issues should not be surprising: L.A. and its suburbs have long been a destination for immigrants all over the world. Some have enjoyed the benefits of refugee protection as they fled crises in their home country but many have simply made the journey to political freedom and economic opportunity by overstaying visas or crossing our southern border.
The connection with U.S.-born or legal immigrant family members is also unsurprising. While many think of undocumented immigrants as recently arrived and lightly tethered to the economy and the community, nearly seventy percent of L.A. County’s undocumented immigrants have actually been in the country for longer than a decade.
As such, they have had plenty of time to sink roots, form families, join churches, buy houses, and start businesses. Indeed, they might be more appropriately called undocumented Angelenos — deeply embedded in our civic life and social fabric and clearly not going away.
Unfortunately, they often face a high level of economic insecurity. While immigrants who have been gained legal status and become citizens actually do better on staying above the poverty line than even the U.S.-born, those still undocumented fare much worse. For example, wages for year-round full-time workers who lack status are roughly half of the L.A. County average.
As the COVID-19 crises continues to unfold, the families they are part of are already living on the edge. The concentration of such workers in industries like housekeeping, restaurants, and retail and wholesale trade means that they will be hard-hit by the spending cut-backs likely to occur as economic life grounds to a halt.
After all, the jobs they hold and the lives they lead are not conducive to working remotely. They may still feel the need to trek to work in order to protect their livelihoods when in fact they should be staying home and seeking care. They — and even their U.S.-born and LPR family members — may also be frightened away from tapping into emergency health care by the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule. This policy threatens to disrupt both any path to legalization (or for lawful permanent residents, the path to naturalization) if an individual accesses a range of social services.
While the Trump administration has indicated that testing and treatment for Coronavirus would not be considered a negative factor in any future determination of public charge, research suggests that the earlier discussion and implementation of public charge has already had a significant “chilling effect” on the use of social service programs to which immigrant adults and their U.S.-born family members are entitled.
Asking a community to believe that a public health approach to public charge will be honored even as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues arrests and deportations is a stretch. With enforcement and exclusion the hallmarks of this administration, the current pandemic just adds to the fear of contact with authorities let alone of contact with the virus.
The Coronavirus crisis reveals many of the vulnerabilities already underlying our society, including unequal access to health care, the tenuous nature of gig employment, and the scourge of homelessness. It is pointing the way to policy changes we have needed for a long time: paid sick leave for all workers, universal health insurance, and a basic income cushion for those at the lower rungs of the labor market.
But it also reveals how we have allowed a broken immigration system and a failure to strike a deal on comprehensive immigration reform to put us all at risk.
When we emerge from this crisis, we will need to finally create a path to legalization and stability for the nation’s undocumented residents and their families. In the meantime, the federal government should muzzle the deportation campaign of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and create an atmosphere where all immigrants feel safe seeking assistance.
State and local governments are less hamstrung by federal restrictions on direct aid, and less driven by the mood swings of an unstable President. California has already extended MediCal to undocumented youth and young adults, and the Governors has proposed to cover low-income seniors as well; it would be wise to at least temporarily offer full health assistance to any resident in the state.
Likewise, state and local programs that seek to provide cash and other assistance should think of creative ways (including eviction moratoria) to include these vulnerable families who are unlikely to be included in any federal legislation. City governments and local school districts can help by including all family members in the food support programs many are seeking to launch.
It’s not just a government affair. In the non-profit sector, many immigrant rights groups, such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) here in Los Angeles, have stepped with campaigns to educate all immigrants about both the disease and their rights to fair treatment.
As we go forward, let’s remember that public health requires that we protect everyone to protect ourselves — and the current crisis shows that a society that has long allowed some populations to live in the shadows is ill-equipped for this sort of emergency.
And let’s hope that one of the lessons that emerges from today’s turmoil is the understanding that an inclusive and fact-based approach to immigration — and to other matters such as climate change and economic turmoil — is a surer footing for our nation in times of both crisis and calm.
