The Economist - USA (2022-05-21)

The Economist May 21st 2022 23

United States

Benefitsforimmigrants

The welfare states

O

ne marchmorning, a raucous parade

of protesters passed by The Economist’s

offices in midtown Manhattan. Supporters

of  a  policy  called  the  Excluded  Workers

Fund  were  showing  their  discontent,  dis­

cernible  above  the  din  of  city  traffic,  with

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul (whose

office  is  a  few  blocks  away).  They  also

sought attention in other ways, disrupting

traffic  on  the  Brooklyn  and  Manhattan

Bridges.  Some  even  marched  150  miles

(240km) to the state capital, Albany. 

The Excluded Workers Fund was a state

fund  set  up  to  pay  workers  who  did  not

qualify for federal unemployment benefits

or  stimulus  cheques—mainly  undocu­

mented immigrants. Established in August

2021, it exhausted the $2.1bn allocated to it

in  three  months,  mostly  through  pay­

ments  of  $15,600  to  130,000  people.  The

protesters  were  demanding  $3bn  more  to

cover 175,000 workers who also qualified. 

Expansions  of  benefits  to  immigrants

illegally  in  America  is  a  relatively  recent,

bicoastal  affair.  From  May  1st,  California

has  allowed  undocumented  residents

above the age of 50 to receive benefits from

Medicaid,  the  government  health­insur­

ance  programme  for  the  poor.  The  state

was  already  covering  Medicaid  costs  for

those under 26 out of its own purse. In his

most  recent  budget  the  governor,  Gavin

Newsom,  proposed  covering  the  final

missing  group,  those  between  the  ages  of

26 and 50—in essence offering Medicaid as

a right to all Californians, regardless of im­

migration status. During the covid­19 pan­

demic,  the  state  gave  cheques  amounting

to $1,700 per person to all. 

Although the campaign to refill the Ex­

cluded  Workers  Fund  failed  in  New  York,

Ms Hochul has put her state on the path to

California­style incremental expansion by

signing  a  budget  in  April  that  provides

Medicaid  for  elderly  undocumented  resi­

dents who are over 65. Since 2020, Califor­

nia and Colorado allow undocumented im­

migrants to claim earned­income tax cred­

its as though they were legal residents.

These moves have attracted muted con­

troversy in their home states. Yet they are

revolutionary.  The  federal  government,

like  most  advanced  welfare  states  from

Britain  to  Sweden,  generally  prohibits

benefits from going to those without a le­

gal right to work (and imposes waiting pe­

riods  for  legal  migrants).  Democrat­run

state and local governments have long re­

sisted  federal  immigration  enforcement.

These efforts take things to a new level. 

Disaffection  with  Congress’s  inability

to  pass  immigration  reform,  including  a

path  to  citizenship,  has  led  some  states,

buoyed by recent surpluses, to spend their

funds  on  emulating  the  federal  safety­net

for undocumented residents. In December

New York City Council even voted to allow

800,000  non­citizens  with  work  permits

to vote in the city’s next council and may­

oral  elections,  including  about  30,000

“Dreamers”,  who  migrated  illegally  to

America  as  children  but  received  permits

through an Obama­era programme. Only a

few  short  years  ago,  such  policies  might

have  been  dismissed  as  fever­dreams  of

the nativist right. 

N EW YORK

Democratic states are extending welfare benefits to the undocumented

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