{"id":65031,"date":"2020-04-13T05:03:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T11:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/immigrant-family-faces-increased-instability-without-stimulus-safety-net\/"},"modified":"2020-04-13T11:03:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T11:03:08","slug":"immigrant-family-faces-increased-instability-without-stimulus-safety-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/immigrant-family-faces-increased-instability-without-stimulus-safety-net\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant family faces increased instability without stimulus safety net"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Isabelle
Isabelle Garcia, a pseudonym given to protect her identity, works on her computer April 4 at her home in the Four Corners. Garcia and her family are not eligible for aid from the recently passed federal CARES stimulus package, like millions of other immigrants.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201c(My dad) is nervous about the whole situation,\u201d she said. His hours at a local restaurant are cut, and money is tight.<\/p>\n

Millions of immigrants are not eligible for financial benefits from the stimulus package \u2013 some warn excluding immigrants could hinder the nation\u2019s ability to heal from the virus.<\/p>\n

Congress passed the $2 trillion CARES Act to provide economic relief and security after unemployment increased by some 16 million in mere weeks. It is perhaps not surprising that people living in the country without legal permission are excluded from the stimulus bill; undocumented immigrants aren\u2019t eligible<\/a> for most federal public benefits.<\/p>\n

Those who support restricting immigration say, now, more than ever, the focus should be on Americans and lawful immigrants. The aid package includes funding for health care providers who will test and treat patients regardless of immigration status, they say. And immigrants are eligible for free testing through government-funded community health centers, they say.<\/p>\n

But advocates say the eligibility for immigrants should be different during a public health crisis. In 2017, 10.5 million undocumented immigrants lived in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center<\/a>. Leaving that many people without aid could be an economic and public health mistake.<\/p>\n

Immigrants need more access to testing and emergency medical care, particularly those in the Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, programs.<\/p>\n

Who does and does not receive stimulus aid is complex. It changes depending on state laws, the type of aid, individual immigrant status, and possibly the status of others in a household.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guidance on this is changing even for us,\u201d said Matthew Campbell, an immigration lawyer in Farmington and Durango. \u201cNew things are coming out very, very quickly \u2013 not only with the corona but with this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal permanent residents, or green card holders, can receive aid, but the rules might apply differently to asylum seekers, refugees, victims of domestic violence, DACA recipients and unauthorized immigrants.<\/p>\n

Campbell said he understands both sides of the debate. But everyone needs to be able to recover, and leaving some people out might slow recovery for others, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmigrants are woven into our society, both legal and illegal immigrants,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t all want to be dragged down, so we shouldn\u2019t let people slip through the safety net.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t know if I have a future\u2019<\/div>\n

Sitting in her house, Isabelle Garcia took time from her homework to describe her family\u2019s uncertainty. For the Garcia family, their exclusion from the relief package means navigating economic upheaval without a safety net.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it\u2019s best to not watch the news because it stresses us out even more than we already are,\u201d her mother said, speaking in Spanish with Garcia translating. \u201cIt makes us afraid to turn on our devices to see if things are getting worse or better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family survives on one income from the restaurant industry, a common employer for immigrants in La Plata County. Other families work in oil fields, informal arrangements, agriculture, hospitality and service industries, such as cleaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have lost their jobs right now,\u201d said Matt Karkut, executive director of Compa\u00f1eros, a nonprofit immigrant resource center in Durango. \u201cThey\u2019re unsure about when their jobs are coming back and they\u2019re unsure how long their savings will last.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isabelle\u2019s mother is cutting expenses and is concerned for her family\u2019s health, including her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are we going to do if we can\u2019t get health care for him?\u201d Garcia\u2019s mother said. \u201cHe\u2019s the main provider for our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some immigrants worry that applying for federal relief will bring unwanted attention to their immigration status. Many are afraid to seek help, Campbell and Karkut said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo some people, the distinction between immigration agents and any other part \u2026 is not clear,\u201d Karkut said.<\/p>\n

Garcia is a DACA recipient. Like about 700,000 others, she is working through the crisis while waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court rescinds the program in June \u2013 meaning she could be eligible for deportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we hear anything this summer, then my future \u2026 I don\u2019t know if I have a future,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Some face language barriers. Garcia\u2019s parents, who struggle with English, are trying to navigate through the crisis by depending on Spanish news and bilingual updates from San Juan Basin Public Health, she said. The teenager helps translate and does daily tasks for her family, so her parents \u201cdon\u2019t have to stress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Garcias are a multi-status family. The parents are undocumented, Isabelle has DACA status, and her sibling is a U.S. citizen. Some reports indicate that if any member of the household uses an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to pay taxes, a common practice among undocumented immigrants, the whole household is not eligible<\/a> for relief aid. (Campbell second-guessed this, saying it sounded illegal.)<\/p>\n

For Garcia, it\u2019s difficult to accept her family\u2019s inability to get aid. They\u2019ve lived in the United States for years. They follow the laws. They pay taxes, but they can\u2019t receive tax aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just super difficult to know that you\u2019ve been doing everything right, and you still can\u2019t ask for help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isabelle Garcia, a pseudonym given to protect her identity, works on her computer April 4 at her home in the Four Corners. Garcia and her family are not eligible for aid from the recently passed federal CARES stimulus package, like millions of other immigrants.Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald \u201c(My dad) is nervous about the whole situation,\u201d she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,13,28,904,686],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-immigration","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65031"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}