Minorities and Immigrants are Left Behind Without Aid?

Photo: NYCLU

Why are individual Americans left behind during a pandemic?  What do I mean by 'left behind'?  Have you received your stimulus check yet?  I have along with my wife.  What about those who have been waiting to receive aid that actually needs help?  Who has been without a job for a few months? Additionally, let us not forget that we are a nation built upon the backs of immigrants and slave labor.  That definitely needs to be driven home while considering dispersing out financial aid to the citizens of the United States.



Recent reporting by Politico Nightly suggests that minority groups and immigrants are without aid:

The damage is spreading: Minority business owners say they’re struggling to stay afloat. Some 45 percent of black and Latino small business owners anticipate closing within six months, according to a poll released Monday by Global Strategy Group for the nonprofit and civil rights advocacy groups Color of Change and Unidos US. The survey of more than 500 minority business owners, black workers and Latino workers found 51 percent of black and Latino small business owners applied for less than $20,000 in federal relief each. But just 12 percent say they received the full amount of assistance requested.

The stimulus packages passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump have offered no relief to immigrants without social security numbers, temporary visa holders, or undocument immigrants like Dreamers. A Latino Decisions poll conducted for SOMOS, Unidos US, and MoveOn scheduled to be released Wednesday found 31 percent of U.S.-born Latinos and 45 percent of immigrants did not receive a stimulus check.

With large corporations receiving federal aid in record time, significant questions remain as to why small businesses remain out in the cold without financial help.  Time and time again, big corporations receive bailouts while mom & pop shops continue to financially fail and go out of business. 


Yet, now with the news above, another dimension is brought into play to discriminate against small businesses.  Race is a dimension that need not be used in any discriminatory manner.  Now is not the time to show that minority business owners should not receive equal financial assistance compared to their caucasian counterparts.



Immigrants have received the short end of the stick time and time again.  Why?  In America, only the rich get richer, and the poorer get poorer.  Now, more than ever, that trend is playing out.  Immigrants perform jobs that ordinary Americans would choose not to do.  Often times, immigrants are cheated out of fair wages simply because their employers are aware that effectively -- the person (immigrant) have very little legal protection -- while working without papers here in the U.S. 



The result is even more financial hardship on the poorest of the poorest.  How people in power sleep at night is beyond my comprehension.  The inequity of financial disbursements has got to stop.  The time is well past in stripping minorities of their equal economic rights.