NEW YORK – Dozens of undocumented immigrants who have lost their jobs as a result of the crisis unleashed by the pandemic gathered outside the offices of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday to ask for an economic relief fund.
Convened by several NGOs, including “Make the Road”, on the occasion of the Thanksgiving holiday, which is celebrated this Thursday, the participants, mostly Latin Americans, set up a table in which two people who pretended to be billionaires were sitting in front of a large cooked turkey and large sheaves of paper imitating money, to denounce the disparities between the richest and poorest in the city.
“For more than 200 days, working-class New Yorkers have struggled to survive the covid-19 pandemic. Instead of raising taxes on the ultra-rich, including New York’s 118 billionaires, state lawmakers and Governor Cuomo have left working-class New Yorkers to their fate with no relief in sight, “said a” Make the Road “statement.
The protesters, displaying empty plates, were accompanied by Democratic State Congresswoman Carmen De La Rosa and also gathered in front of the office of New York Senate Majority Speaker Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
De La Rosa called for passage of a bill presented in the state Assembly to impose a special tax on the richest people in New York.
“People will continue to die, they will continue to go hungry and at a time when the city has been hit by this pandemic, no community has suffered what the excluded workers have suffered. They cannot get federal or state aid The only thing they have is the food queues, “De La Rosa said.
At the same time, in the neighboring state of New Jersey, a similar protest was called with tables full of empty plates to symbolize the thousands of undocumented workers who have no income and will not be able to celebrate these holidays by buying the traditional turkey.
“In New Jersey, undocumented immigrants have been disproportionately harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic and are excluded from nearly all forms of government assistance. Many undocumented immigrants work in essential occupations, including the home delivery professions, replenishers, medical care and cleaning, which have allowed millions of New Jerseyans to take refuge in their homes during the worst months of the pandemic, “organizers said in a note.
According to the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York, it is estimated that the unemployment rate among the immigrant population rose from 3%, before the pandemic, to 15% today.
This institute assures that although there is no specific data on the level of unemployment among the undocumented, it emphasizes that several of the sectors in which they usually work have been badly hit by the crisis, such as the restaurant sector, where it is estimated that 20 percent work. percent of the undocumented immigrant community, whose number may be around half a million people.
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