Memo: A Stimulus for All Americans
Voters support including all Americans in stimulus, regardless
of immigration status
By Monica Masiello
The first coronavirus relief bill (the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act) was signed into law by President Trump on March 27, 2020, and excluded many immigrants from its delivery of direct payments to taxpayers and free coronavirus testing, among other provisions. The omission of undocumented immigrants, has the potential to impact the bill’s efficacy in bolstering public health and stopping the spread of the virus throughout the country.
Executive Summary
An overall majority of Americans support extending a number of benefits to immigrants regardless of immigration status--including the extension of free health treatment, monthly stimulus payments to taxpayers, the auto-renewal of visas to all immigrant essential workers and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients --as a means of mitigating the severity and duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
Given visa renewal offices are closed, automatically renewing visas and immigration benefits for essential workers in particular--nurses, doctors, agricultural workers and transportation for the duration of the state of emergency in the U.S.--is very popular, with 71 percent support overall. Support for this proposal was 59 percent among Republicans--a leap of nearly 20 percentage points above Republican support for each of the other proposals surveyed.
The American public believes including everyone in the United States in recovery efforts is best for public health and the economy.
