The COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health and economic crisis in New Jersey. Low-wage and immigrant workers are among the most vulnerable, particularly immigrants without an authorized federal immigration status.  Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants and their US citizen children in NJ will not receive stimulus payments, even though many immigrant workers are working on the frontlines of COVID-19, making important deliveries, working in warehouses and health care. When immigrants lose their jobs, they are ineligible for unemployment assistance and most federal benefits if they lack a federal immigration status.

New Jersey state legislature must fully support the Fund for Excluded New Jerseyans by providing $989 million in funds for relief for low-income individuals left behind from federal relief. The state is currently forecasting more than $6.3 billion in unexpected revenue and has received an additional $6.4 billion in federal stimulus funds.
On May 7, 2021, Gov. Murphy launched the Fund for Excluded New Jerseyans, a fund to provide one-time relief to low-income individuals excluded from federal relief programs that can prove they have been directly impacted by the pandemic. The initial $40 million allocated to the program will serve less than 10 percent of those individuals and families that are in need of aid.

No one should have to survive without relief. Our state should provide sufficient funds so that each excluded worker may receive $2,000 payments per excluded individual and unemployment-like benefits in the form of $600 per week payments to workers that have lost their jobs during the pandemic but do not qualify for unemployment insurance due to their immigration status. The total cost of this program is approximately $989 million.