Governor Gavin Newsom announced an executive order this week that will provide $125 million in disaster relief for undocumented workers in California. While advocates are excited to see this development, they say the amount will only cover a fraction of those in need.
The order will give a one-time payment of up to $500 to individuals and a thousand dollars to families. That means only 150,000 out of 1.5 million undocumented workers will receive some relief, according to the California Immigrant Policy Center.
In the San Joaquin Valley, roughly 112,000 people are undocumented according to a 2018 American Community Survey.
“As heartened as we are about this emergency relief fund we know it’s not going to be enough for our families and even the governor said it wasn’t enough in his announcement,” Sasha Fieldstein from the California Immigrant Policy Center said. She adds the order doesn’t really detail how the money will be distributed.
“My understanding of how it's going to be implemented is using community based organizations that already have trusts and relationships with undocumented immigrant community members,” Fieldstein said. Those community organizations will be in charge of distributing the disaster relief funds.
Fieldstein continues to push for the inclusion ofundocumented tax filers in the California’s cash back tax credit program.
Funding for the disaster relief aid will come from a public-private partnership with $75 million provided by the state government and the remaining $25 million from philanthropists.
