New Jersey Approves Fund For Undocumented Immigrants And Excluded Workers

New York City NY

14 May, 2021

4:30 PM

Description

By Deanna Garcia, DocumentedNY May 14, 2021 New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday that undocumented immigrants and excluded workers will receive $40 million of the state's $275 million economic relief package. The move comes after workers excluded from past state and federal relief protested and embarked on hunger strikes. New Jersey residents who were excluded, regardless of immigration status or whether they filed taxes, are able to claim a one-time payment of $1,000, with a household maximum of $2,000. People with incomes over about $55,000 won't be eligible. Advocates said this was an important first step toward helping people struggling during the pandemic, but are still afraid this sum won't cover the whole community. NJ.com Documented Event : Documented and Waterwell Present: I Know What Pandemic Means This Wednesday, May 12 at 2p.m., Documented and Waterwell will release a documentary that examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated New York's Latin American immigrant communities. "Yo sé qué es pandemia" or "I know what pandemic means" is a bilingual film and was directed by filmmaker Frisly Soberanis. It includes voices of the readers of Documented Semanal, a publication that provides undocumented New Yorkers with valuable information via WhatsApp. The film follows loss, community and financial pressures and an overwhelming sense of helplessness within the city's Latin American immigrant communities. Register here for Wednesday's free Zoom screening. NJ Daughter of Immigrant Parents Accepted into Ivy League College While living in Bangladesh, Abduh Miah had a degree in education and was a middle school teacher. But his credentials couldn't get him a job in the U.S., and he spent more than 20 years working fast-food restaurant jobs while spreading the value of education to his children. Last month, he found out his daughter, Iffat Aniqa, was accepted to Yale University. She is the latest student from Paterson, which is largely made up of immigrants, to head to an Ivy League college. Aniqa was inspired to apply to Yale by the New Jersey Community Development Corporation, which encourages Paterson students to aim high in their college applications. North Jersey Documented Survey : What News is Most Important to New York's Caribbean Communities? Documented is looking to improve coverage of issues that are important to the Caribbean community. If you'd like to give us your input to help us achieve that goal, please answer a set of questions here. This summary was featured in Documented's Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here. Support the work of Documented Documented was founded with the goal of making sure the people affected by our stories were also the people reading them. Immigration reporting is often extractive and isn't produced or published with the main protagonists as the intended audience. Through our reporting and out outreach via WhatsApp, we've created award-winning journalism that is created with and for New York's immigrant communities. This work is not easy and it is not cheap. Consider becoming a member today to help fuel this work. By joining the Documented Community, you can not help only provide us with the financial freedom needed to fulfill our mission but also meet others who are passionate about immigration in the New York area. Become a member today. Documented NY is a non-profit news site devoted solely to covering New York City's immigrants and the policies that affect their lives.