Broadway in Elmhurst (Photo: Queens Post)
April 1, 2021 By Ryan Songalia
Undocumented immigrants and formerly incarcerated inmates in New York state could soon receive unemployment benefits that they had been ineligible for under earlier federal aid packages.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who represents a portion of western Queens, has been an outspoken advocated for the proposal known as the Excluded Workers Fund. On Wednesday, she took to Twitter, urging that it be included in the state budget.
“Every [New Yorker] should have access to the meaningful relief they need to provide for their families, regardless of documentation,” wrote Ramos.
Ramos was not immediately available for comment when the Queens Post reached out to her office this morning.
State legislators and the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo are already discussing how the plan would be implemented, reported Politico on Tuesday.
Senate and Assembly Democrats have proposed $2.1 billion to be included for the Excluded Workers Fund, which would make some recipients eligible for more than $27,000 in relief.
Undocumented immigrants–and those who have been released from incarceration since October 2019 and therefore did not have the sufficient work history— would be eligible for unemployment benefits backdated to the time when the pandemic struck in March.
Benefits would include retroactive payments of $600 for each week they were unemployed from March 27 through July 2020, and $300 for each week from August 1, 2020 through September 6, 2021. Therefore, someone who has not worked the entirety of the pandemic would be eligible for an immediate payment of $20,700 and an additional $6,600.
“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,” New York Immigration Coalition’s Vanessa Agudelo told Politico.
We need to #FundExcludedWorkers in this budget & figure out a way to get money into the pockets of those who need it the most ASAP. Every NYer should have access to the meaningful relief they need to provide for their families, regardless of documentation. https://t.co/o6Suxtmaz7
— Jessica Ramos (@jessicaramos) March 31, 2021
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5 Comments
So many people in astoria will benefit if this passes. Take a walk on any avenue in astoria and you will see how many people are suffering and waiting for help all while others are dining outside and spending lavishing pretending to care about all the unemployed undocumented immigrants and poor in Astoria who are going to bed hungry. Donating a couple of cans of soup to our local enough is not enough. We need to do much more.
We’re one year into the pandemic, with the recovery underway, so I think this money is really too late at this point. Why not spend the tax dollars in cleaning up NYC, getting rid of graffiti, so that it’s a place tax-paying New Yorkers want to come back to?
I hope this is an April Fools joke, but I doubt it.
I thought NY was BROKE!!! How come people who commited crimes and non citizens get free $$$$$ when born NYers get Nothing! What about people who have been unemployed before Covid? They didn’t quailify for this free dough! Or the elderly trying to survive on Only their Social Security while “New Normal” drives prices up! The young elities who DID get it with FREE RENT, would have us believe it’s THEIR TAXES! But these “incarsarated persons” and “non citizens” did not work to have ANY taxes with held, so WHO PAYING THE FREE $$$$$ for them! Real Racists pay reparations to those they chose instead of helping the real poor. Trying to exterminate America for who you want? What’s to stop other non citizens from coming here with their hands out? Crime continues to climb , the 114 turns a blind eye and your rich are running for the hills…. Stop destroying NY and HELP the REAL NYers who never got a section 8, FREE RENT or was DENIED a job cause they were not young enough or not colorful enough. Racism is helping only a select few. Help everyone if you have soo much funds hidden BEFORE you help others!
This is truly unreal – typical “work the system”. If they were working shouldn’t have taxes been paid?