Triangle elected leaders to give their stimulus checks to immigrants missing out on aid
Some elected officials in the Triangle are joining an effort to support workers who won’t be receiving coronavirus stimulus checks: immigrants without legal status.
Durham and Raleigh elected officials have joined a campaign by Latino advocacy group Siembra NC called the “#ShareYourCheck Challenge” to pledge donating all or part of their federal assistance to economically impacted immigrant families.
The federal program gives $1,200 to individuals, or $2,400 to married couples, with an additional $500 for each qualifying dependent child under 17 by the end of 2019.
Although many of them are working in essential jobs during the pandemic, immigrants in the United States without a Social Security number are ineligible for the $2 trillion federal emergency aid package.
In Durham, Mayor Steve Schewel and council members Mark-Anthony Middleton, Charlie Reece, Jillian Johnson and Javiera Caballero have joined the pledge, along with Durham County Commissioner Chair Wendy Jacobs and Commissioner Heidi Carter.
In Raleigh, City Council members Saige Martin and Nicole Stewart have joined, while the rest of the council wasn’t yet aware of the effort when Siembra NC announced it Monday, Martin told The News & Observer.
“I know that if the others had been given enough time to know the campaign they likely would have joined,” Martin said. “We’re very aware that there are already folks that are simply falling through the cracks without federal support, state support or county support, which isn’t necessarily on purpose ... and [immigrants] are people that we rely on every single day to make our country work.”
He said he would bring up the matter to the council ahead of the City Council’s special meeting Tuesday.
In Orange County, Chapel Hill Town Council member Karen Stegman told said she plans to donate to a fund created by Triangle nonprofit El Centro Hispano that provides groceries and other necessary items to families in need.
Orange County Commissioner Mark Dorosin said he would bring up the matter at the Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday.
Behind the “#ShareYourCheck Challenge”
According to research from New American Economy, there are roughly 317,000 immigrants without legal status in North Carolina, with 90.5% of them being working age.
In a Facebook Live telethon Saturday, Siembra NC raised over $13,000 for the fund, which is being run in partnership by the Triangle-based nonprofit Church World Service and the Interactive Resource Center in Greensboro.
Over 150 North Carolinians have joined the “#ShareYourCheck Challenge,” according to Siembra NC. The money pledged by Triangle leaders will fund emergency cash assistance through Siembra NC’s Immigrant Solidarity Fund.
The N&O has previously reported on workers without legal status during the pandemic, many of whom still pay taxes and have lost work or had their hours cut.
U.S. citizens filing jointly with spouses who lack a Social Security number also do not qualify for stimulus checks, Enlace Latino NC reported.
Among those who will be helped by the new fund are the families of two workers with COVID-19 at a Charlotte-area Harris Teeter distribution facility, whom Andrew Willis Garcés, an organizer with Siembra NC, said are Latino immigrants.
“There is not state, or federal or even local aid that we can see that is targeted specifically toward [undocumented] folks, even at a policy level,” Garcés told The N&O.
Garcés said families with reduced income risk losing their cars or cell phones. Some could lose their homes once eviction courts are operating again, he said.
“It’s not about a targeted fix for undocumented people, it’s about a fix for everyone, for each of these things, where if you don’t have money coming in, you’re gonna get crunched,” he said.
Staff writer Tammy Grubb contributed to this story.
