New York state Democrats are building a financial fund that would supply illegal immigrants and ex-convicts with as much as $27,000 each to help them overcome the financial difficulties brought about by the ongoing pandemic.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in talks with state lawmakers to create the Excluded Workers Fund, assisting those individuals in need. The plan however has sparked outrage from conservatives.
In total, the plan would cost $2.1 billion and would give $600 each week to individuals ineligible for support through regular channels. This includes illegal immigrants and ex-convicts, amongst others.
Vanessa Agudelo of the New York Immigration Coalition told Politico that she was in favour of the move. She said:
"This level of investment is absolutely historic for our communities. It's the biggest investment any state has made to provide this level of relief to those workers who have been excluded from those unemployment benefits as well as what's been passed in the stimulus package. These are the folks who have been starving and have been on food lines on a daily basis, sometimes for hours, just to guarantee some food on the table for themselves and their families for the same night."
She went on to say:
"It's the bare minimum that we could be asking for our people, and we believe with the amount of wealth in this state and how quickly it has accumulated even in the past year during the pandemic within the ultra-wealthy class, we believe it is criminal while we think about the disparity that exists in our communities and the starvation [and] dire financial hardship."
An unnamed Republican in the state hit back, saying:
"They want this to pass with the most crazy terms possible so they can campaign on it. They want to make this a political issue if it passes."
The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in well over half a million US lives being lost, and in 2020 the unemployment rate skyrocketed to one of the highest levels seen in generations, with unemployment at one stage being even higher than it was during the Great Depression of the early 1930s.
[h/t: The Western Journal]
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