Expanding Coronavirus Aid to Mixed Immigration Status Families is Popular
Voters Prioritize Relief for All Americans--Not Just U.S. Citizens
By Monica Masiello
As lawmakers debate the next round of coronavirus relief programs, Democrats have acknowledged an imperative to rectify certain oversights and inequities present in the first stimulus bill signed by President Trump at the end of March. At a news conference on April 30, 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed support among Democrats for reversing a provision in the initial relief package that had prohibited mixed immigration status families (families in which one spouse is not a U.S. citizen) from receiving stimulus payments.
While there is currently no commitment from Democratic leadership that such an amendment will be made in the next round of coronavirus legislation, Data for Progress polling from April 2020 shows robust support among voters for extending relief to mixed immigration status families. At 46 percent support overall, a strong plurality of voters agree that the federal government should provide coronavirus relief checks to American citizen children with an undocumented parent. This proposal is also backed by a majority of Democratic voters with 60 percent in support, as well as a majority of voters under 45 (51 percent support) and college educated voters (53 percent support).
By excluding mixed immigration status families from payments in previous legislation, mixed status married couples were denied up to $2,400 in relief, and an additional $500 for each dependent child, which had been made available to the broader American citizen public. The withholding of aid from these families has given rise to questions of the provision’s constitutionality, including a Maryland lawsuit in which the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) argued that by treating mixed immigration status married couples differently than U.S. citizen married couples, the provision is inconsistent with the law of the land.
Alongside Democratic leadership and advocacy groups, it is clear that voters recognize that extending aid to all American families regardless of immigration status is crucial to helping the country endure the economic hardship of the pandemic--and outlast it.
Monica Masiello contributes survey research support and analysis to Data for Progress. Her background is in racial inequality and gender discrimination research, and she has worked as a congressional aide, at women’s advocacy nonprofits, and in digital organizing, communications, and field operations on progressive presidential and down-ballot campaigns since 2016.