New York, NY-Today, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which is the latest COVID-19 federal relief bill. Like the relief package last December, this bill provides economic relief to roughly 3.5 million U.S. citizens and green card holders married to noncitizens who file taxes using an ITIN number, including 314,000 New Yorkers but still leaves out countless other tax-paying immigrant families. The comprehensive package would provide $1,400 stimulus payments to tens of millions of American families, enhanced federal unemployment benefits through August, $350 billion in aid to states, cities, U.S. territories, tribal governments, and increased funding vaccine distribution and coronavirus testing.
Murad Awawdeh and Rovika Rajkishun, interim Co-Executive Directors of the New York Immigration Coalition, released the following statement.
“It’s common-sense that every family must have a chance at recovery so we can defeat COVID-19 and rebuild our economy. But for nearly a year, Washington played politics with our lives during this historic crisis. The American Rescue Plan offers critical federal economic assistance to states and localities, as well as hundreds of thousands of immigrant New Yorkers. Still, it continues to shut the door on far too many of our immigrant essential workers and their families.
America needs every one of us to revitalize our economy. Anything less than an equal chance at recovery jeopardizes our collective future. Congress can start the fight for immigrants' inclusion in the country’s recovery by immediately providing a pathway to legalization for the 11 million undocumented to jumpstart our economy and provide stability to millions of immigrant essential workers. We can only turn the page on this crisis together. We urge New York’s members of Congress to move this bill forward quickly to ensure a stable and robust foundation for our continued COVID response and recovery now and into the future.”