Millions in U.S. denied coronavirus stimulus checks because they married an immigrant
Christina Segundo-Hernández had to leave her job at UPS to take care of her four kids after the schools closed because of the coronavirus.
She was hoping to use her stimulus check to fix the swing set in the back yard, but she recently found out she is not getting any federal aid money.
“I wanted them to have a place to play,” said Segundo-Hernández, who holds an hour of recess with her kids each day in the back yard of her northeast Fort Worth home.
“I don’t understand how me, a taxpaying American citizen and my children are being punished just because of who I married. That’s just not American.”
Thousands of U.S. citizens and lawmakers across the country are asking the same question. Why were millions of families abiding by the tax laws, reporting their real household income and being open about their loved one’s immigration status left out in this time of need?
In Texas, where one in seven U.S. citizen children live in a home like Segundo-Hernández’s, where a member of the family does not have a Social Security number, this exclusion affects everybody, experts say.
Illegal or not you’re out
Segundo-Hernandez’s husband is undocumented and works in construction. For nearly a decade he’s used a federal individual taxpayer identification number when they file their joint tax returns.
Filing taxes is not mandatory for undocumented workers but Segundo-Hernandez said they hope to one day fix her husband’s immigration status and want to show he’s been a contributing member to society and not a public burden.
There are more than 1.6 million undocumented immigrants living in Texas. More than 475,000 of them live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to a 2016 study by the PEW Research Center.
In 2017, 141,419 people, or about 7%, of Tarrant County’s population was undocumented, according to a recent study sponsored by the county.
Many of these foreign nationals ineligible for Social Security numbers use tax identification numbers to comply with U.S. tax laws and pay taxes on their income. Others simply do not report their taxes because they might be using a fake or borrowed Social Security number.
“The problem is that our economy has become completely dependent on unauthorized workers,” said Jennifer Walker-Gates, an immigration attorney in Austin who is helping Segundo-Hernandez in the fight to get millions of families like hers their stimulus check.
“These people pay into our tax system but they don’t get any of the benefits,” she added.
But not everyone who uses an tax identification number is in the country illegally. There are many families that are not getting the stimulus check even though the foreign national living in that household entered the country with a visa and is in the process of getting a legal residency, Walker-Gates said.
More than 1.4 million foreign nationals were sponsored to get a green card by a U.S. citizen relative including a spouse, child or parent between 2014 and 2016, according to the latest U.S. Homeland Security figures.
Walker-Gates said there are several thousand people who have done everything right and would have had a Social Security number to file this year’s taxes and get the stimulus check but the doors were closed on them.
United States Citizen and Immigration Services closed its offices to the public more than one month ago because of the coronavirus and canceled or rescheduled many in-person interviews that are mandatory for asylum and green card applicants.
“This is a new level of discrimination,” Jennifer-Walker said. “To start punishing U.S. citizens for loving and depending on people that are undocumented adds a whole new level to the immigration debate.”
Fighting Back
Earlier this month, Segundo-Hernández began finding other people on social media who were going through the same situation as her family.
On April 12, she created a private Facebook group called Mixed-status Families United and in less than one week, the group had grown to more than 3,000 members from across the country.
The group has been sharing stories, petitions and raising money to hire an attorney.
“We want the president to know what is happening because I don’t think he would approve,” Segundo-Hernández said. “He’s married to an immigrant and is all about putting America first. We are Americans.”
On April 3, U.S. Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., introduced the Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act. Backed by more than 40 House Democrats, the amendment to the CARES Act seeks to include “eligible individuals” with a tax ID number.
“While many of us sit at home, these hardworking immigrants are still at work in our hospitals, our fields, and countless other industries,” Correa wrote in a news release.
“The coronavirus doesn’t care about a person’s wealth, job, or immigration status. By casting out immigrants, we are placing some of our most vulnerable residents in grave danger. Every individual taxpayer, irrespective of citizenship status, needs government assistance now.”
Sponsors of the amendment, including Texas Democratic Reps. Filemon Vela and Veronica Escobar, did not return requests for comment.
The health and well-being of undocumented immigrants affect everybody, especially during a global health crisis, said Thespina “Nina” Yamanis, an associate professor in the school of international service at American University.
Yamanis has spent more than a decade researching ways to improve the health of under-served populations. Earlier this month, the Annual Review of Public Health published a report co-authored by Yamanis that focused on undocumented Latinx immigrants’ health.
“This virus doesn’t discriminate,” Yamanis said. “Regardless of people’s views on immigration, they should recognize that we’re all in this together right now.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
