To ensure email delivery directly to your inbox, please add
@migrationpolicy.org to your address book.

January 13, 2021

Dear John xxxxxx,

The budget package passed by Congress in December rectified an oversight from the earlier CARES Act: Making U.S. citizens and legal immigrants in mixed-status families eligible for COVID-19-relief payments.

In a new commentary, Migration Policy Institute (MPI) researchers estimate that nearly 3 million U.S.-citizen and legal-immigrant adults and children with an unauthorized immigrant spouse or parent are eligible for stimulus of up to $600 under the December legislation, as well as retroactive CARES Act payments of up to $1,200 per person.

With the incoming Biden administration and Congress likely poised to consider increasing the $600 checks, perhaps to as much as $2,000, the MPI data showing affected populations at U.S. and state levels could be a useful resource. The researchers note some populations remain uncovered, including 2.2 million U.S.-citizen and legal-immigrant children whose parents are both unauthorized immigrants.

"Recent extensions of aid to U.S. citizens and legal immigrants in mixed-status families enjoyed bipartisan support," write authors Julia Gelatt, Randy Capps, and Michael Fix. " Further expansions of assistance would account for a small fraction of the total cost of any future stimulus package and would accrue major benefits to millions of U.S.-citizen children and -- through family spending on essential needs -- the communities in which they live."

You can read the commentary here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/cares-act-excluded-citizens-immigrants-now-covered.

With best regards,

Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications and Public Affairs,
Migration Policy Institute

_________________________________________


Migration Policy Institute
Stay up to date on MPI's events and newest publications: [link removed].

Migration Data Hub
Find the latest immigration statistics, maps, and numbers for the United States and other countries: [link removed].

Click here to unsubscribe [ [link removed] ]