Immigrants make our communities stronger: Tell Congress to reject the “No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act”
On the day of his inauguration for a second term, Donald Trump issued a flurry of Executive Orders targeting the LGBTQ community, civil rights protections, and immigrant communities. Meanwhile, Congress is echoing the new administration’s attacks on immigrant communities with a proposal to punish whole cities or states if they choose not to join in the attack.
The No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act would force cities and state governments across the country to participate in mass deportation actions or potentially risk losing money for programs such as:
Department of Education grants, National School Lunch Program funding, and other forms of federal support for schools, which are not allowed to refuse enrollment by undocumented students.
Emergency Medicaid, which provides states with funding for emergency care for people ineligible for Medicaid due to their immigration status. In the case of public hospitals run by a city or county, all federal funding for uncompensated care, such as Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments, could be at risk.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Emergency Food Assistance Program, and other nutrition programs that support food banks and other community partners that do not restrict help by immigration status.
Violence Against Women Act grants, such as those supporting violence crisis centers that do not turn away people based on their immigration status.
Cutting funding for these programs would take away critical care for tens of thousands of people.This would disproportionately impact low-income and marginalized Black and Brown communities, further deepening poverty and widening inequality.
This overreach by the federal government would be devastating to community programs and set a dangerous precedent on how cities and states are allowed to operate autonomously. We must stop this overreach before it can be implemented.
Needless death afflicts this nation. As racism caused the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others, so are death, sickness, and hardship from the pandemic disproportionately inflicted by race. Black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at more than twice the rate of Whites. Blacks and Latinx are more likely to be unemployed, more likely to go without food, and more likely to be unable to pay rent. With levels of joblessness far higher than during the Great Recession, and those without jobs far more likely to be uninsured, federal solutions and investments remain essential.
The number of U.S. households suffering from food insecurity has nearly doubled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, and food insecurity among children has more than quadrupled. Those sobering conclusions are among the findings of a panel of experts who shared their research on a webinar this week sponsored by The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institute, the Urban Institute, and Share Our Strength.
Last week, we cited an analysis showing that if black Americans died from COVID-19 at the same rate as whites, 13,000 more black Americans would be alive today. Another survey showed that 56 percent of black Americans had lost income from employment since mid-March, and that close to one-quarter of blacks reported sometimes or often not having enough to eat in the previous 7 days, more than three times the proportion of whites. Then, amid the tensions over sickness and want, another crisis. George Floyd was killed by homicidal police in plain view of the world. The outrage of this crime, after so many other injustices, sent thousands of people into the streets.
As the nation mourned 100,000 lives lost to the coronavirus, it was necessary to understand that there would be many thousands more deaths over the coming months, and hundreds of thousands more cases, with the numbers dependent on the ways in which reopenings are achieved. This week’s data show how much some of us have been hit harder: African Americans and the Navajo Nation, and families with children prime examples. Especially shocking: nearly one-third of those jobless because they are sick with coronavirus symptoms are going without food, or close to one-quarter of those home because they must care for their children. The Senate must join the House in enacting COVID recovery legislation similar to the House’s HEROES act.
CHN supporter Dale Wisely of Birmingham, Alabama is worried that “the worst is yet to come” in terms of COVID-19 infections. He worries that his own state — and others — are opening up too quickly for normal activities. “Our polarization is at work,” Dale posted on Facebook. “We’re to believe we either are in the stay-closed-and-destroy-the-economy group or the open-up-and-party group. We could have opened up cautiously and effectively if more would be willing to wear masks and practice social distancing. Instead, some decided to go with conspiracy theories, to scoff at science, to whine about their individual rights, and to politicize what should have been seen as common sense,”
Under the cover of COVID-19, the Trump Administration has accelerated its practice of separating immigrant families and deporting even young children, even in the middle of the night and without their parents’ knowledge. In March and April, the latest months for which figures are available, nearly 1,000 children have been deported. The Trump Administration is callously taking advantage of a 1944 law that grants the president broad power to block foreigners from entering the country in order to prevent the “serious threat” of a dangerous disease.
Joblessness is skyrocketing; families are running out of food, losing health insurance, and failing to pay rent. Congress must respond NOW! Check out CHN’s latest COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship.
Luis of Clearwater, Florida, was furloughed from his job on March 18. He applied for unemployment, but after two months, still had not heard back from the state and had not received a cent in compensation. He is not alone. Nationwide, millions of Americans have been unsuccessful in their efforts to access unemployment; some have not even managed to apply due to factors including crashed web sites, busy signals, and lack of adequate staffing in unemployment offices.
The United States currently faces an economic crisis of climactic proportions. Working families who were already teetering on the brink of financial insolvency now face mass unemployment and a deeply uncertain future. In an economy in which women make up nearly two in three workers in low paid jobs — nearly half of whom are women of color — the burden of this economic collapse will fall disproportionately along gendered and racial lines. We need a new New Deal that does not leave out domestic workers and farmworkers like the first one did, but rather sets workers up for stability both during this crisis and in the recovery to follow.
Week after week, the toll of the pandemic grows, damaging the health and economic security of millions. Joblessness is skyrocketing; shocking numbers are running out of food, losing health insurance, and failing to pay rent. Congress’ response must match the severity of the downturn to prevent another Great Depression.
“Violence is not confined to the battlefield. For many women and girls, the threat looms largest where they should be safest – in their own homes.” These words, spoken by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, shine light on another devastating condition that has been flourishing under the reign of COVID-19, domestic abuse. The fact is that lockdowns and quarantines, while effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus, have the potential to trap those with abusive partners.
When four in ten families with children do not have enough money to buy a month of food, that is an emergency. When 33 million workers have filed unemployment claims, and many more have not even been able to get through to states’ overwhelmed systems, the need for action is urgent. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has worked with House members to introduce legislation aimed at preventing the pandemic from triggering a full-blown Depression. The scope of their response is needed. Congress must act.
