$500 Payouts For NJ Undocumented Immigrants? Plan Sees Cheers, Boos

NEW JERSEY — Nearly a half-million undocumented immigrants in New Jersey pay close to $600 million in state and local taxes every year. These same people pay $1.2 billion in federal taxes, and have contributed $1.3 billion to state unemployment insurance over the past decade without receiving a dollar in benefits. They work at jobs that officials have deemed “essential,” and helped to keep the entire state running while their neighbors safely quarantined at home during the pandemic.

And that’s why they deserve every penny of the $53 million that Gov. Phil Murphy is proposing to help “excluded New Jerseyans,” advocates say.

In March, Murphy made waves when he announced a controversial plan to use $53 million to make one-time, $500 cash payments to low-income taxpayers who were unable to qualify for federal COVID aid or unemployment during the pandemic – including undocumented immigrants.

The payments would be provided to Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) filers. Under existing tax law, undocumented immigrants can use an ITIN to file taxes in lieu of having a Social Security number, Politico reported.

The proposal didn’t make it into the state’s 2023 budget. But last week, Murphy announced he plans to use an estimated $53 million in unspent federal coronavirus pandemic funds to roll out a similar plan to the one his administration put forward in March, NJ.com reported.

Immigration rights advocates – who have been pushing Murphy and other elected officials to create such a fund over the past months – cheered the latest news.

“This is a positive development and highlights that the state has the power to do right by its residents,” said Laura Bustamante, policy and campaigns manager at the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

But much more must be done to ensure the people who do not have ITINs receive the recovery resources they deserve, Bustamante said.

“Without that, the 2020 promises to root out structural inequality and stand for racial justice fall hollow,” Bustamante said.

According to the Excluded New Jerseyan Coalition, the struggle to get aid to the state’s undocumented immigrants began at the onset of the pandemic – and never stopped. The group wrote:

“After 18 months of organizing and a 24-day hunger strike, in May 2021, Gov. Murphy announced the first ever Excluded New Jerseyan Fund, to provide critical aid between $2,000 and $4,000 to New Jersey residents excluded from aid. But only about 10% of people left behind from federal COVID aid were able to apply for the Excluded New Jerseyan Fund before it closed abruptly at the end of February 2022, and fewer than 2% have received aid. Most of the 35,000 applications were received the last month the program was open, after the state made significant changes to streamline the application process and fund community outreach after significant organizing and pressure from the community. As of this week, only about 13,000 individuals had received aid. By contrast, in New York, the state provided $2.1 billion in aid in two months to 130,000 individuals excluded from federal aid at a benefit amount of more than $15,000. In California, the state provided more than 150,000 individuals with a first round of aid and has since dispersed additional assistance to excluded individuals.”

“With no access to health care, unemployment, miserable wages, and no basic worker protections in all industries, we have nothing to lose except our fear of fighting for what we deserve,” said Haydi Torres, an organizer with Cosecha New Jersey.

“We will no longer accept crumbs from the state or the indifference of politicians,” Torres added.

• See related article: Essential Workers Deserve Hazard Pay – NJ Has The Cash, Activists Say
• See related article: NJ Bans Prisons From Making Deals To Hold Immigrants For ICE

‘EXPENSIVE PROGRESSIVE NONSENSE’

The proposal has met with stiff criticism from some Republican state lawmakers, however.

Sen. Jim Holzapfel, Assemblyman Greg McGuckin, and Assemblyman John Catalano (all R-10) blasted the proposal, calling it a “slush fund created by Democrats.”

According to a statement from the three lawmakers, the new state budget gives the governor control of $300 million of unspent federal pandemic relief funds. The new fund, through which the governor can make direct appropriations of up to $20 million for programs without Legislative approval, contains a provision allowing him to fund a single program up to $60 million — enough to fully power the Excluded New Jerseyans Fund as Murphy had proposed.

“If they think the program is so great and deserving of taxpayer funds, Democrats should have been brave enough to put it in the budget they enacted,” Holzapfel said.

“It’s another example of Democrats abusing taxpayer money, failing to be transparent, and refusing to use the oversight powers of the Legislature to hold the Murphy administration accountable,” McGuckin agreed.

Meanwhile, Sen. Michael Testa (R-1) said the money could have softened school aid cuts – and resulting property tax increases – in nearly 200 districts across the state.

“For anyone wondering why New Jersey is so unaffordable, this expensive progressive nonsense from Democrats like Gov. Murphy is exactly why,” Testa said.

• See related article: See How Every NJ Town Ranks For Property Taxes On New List
• See related article: 2022 NJ School Aid: Who's Getting More, Who's Getting Less

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