For millions of low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been nothing short of devastating. This has been especially true for LMI immigrant households whose financial stability was compromised by the federal government’s inadequate efforts to address the adverse economic effects of the pandemic on vulnerable communities. 

As shown in a new issue brief released by Prosperity Now, some of the most fundamental and essential industries in the U.S. economy rely heavily on the work of LMI immigrant workers. Those industries include construction, food service and preparation, home health services, child care, and agriculture, as well as dozens of others. Yet, a large proportion of them are not able to access the safety nets and protections available to other workers. Specifically: 

• Nearly 30 percent of foreign-born workers are classified as LMI, and are concentrated in occupations that pay less than $15 at the median, such as food services and preparation, home health and personal aides, farm work and child care. 
• Millions of non-U.S. citizens are excluded from public benefit programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), non-emergency Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or important refundable tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC), which boost the wages of millions of U.S. citizens every year. 
• Among immigrants, irrespective of income, non-citizen households (58 percent) are more likely to be liquid asset poor than are naturalized citizen households (35.7 percent). This means that nearly 60 percent of all non-citizen immigrant households do not have enough in cash on hand, emergency savings, or retirement savings to subsist at the federal poverty level for three months without income. 
• More than a third of non-citizen households have no access to mainstream credit. 

In spite of that, the federal government’s COVID-19 response has neglected to provide any kind of relief to broad categories of immigrant workers and their family members, many of whom are U.S. citizens. Specifically, undocumented workers have been by and large written out of the $192 billion Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.  

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed in a dramatic way the deep inequities that exist in our society. It has also posed essential philosophical questions about the society’s own structure. How can a democratic society advance while permanently excluding large segments of its members from accessing basic financial and other supports? The pandemic has also revealed some immediate public health implications of social exclusion. If a large portion of our country's workforce has no choice but to work, even when public health guidance mandates the population to stay home, the health of everyone in our communities is put at risk.  

It is clear that the world will not be the same after COVID-19. Expressions like the “new normal” have become ubiquitous. That underscores the importance of this moment and the invaluable opportunity it offers to our society (and our policymakers in particular) for setting new rules and reforming institutions.   

Through innovative policies, the government could help shape an economy and a society that are both inclusive and sustainable. As they engage in the planning for the post-pandemic scenario, elected officials should be urged to design an economic infrastructure where everyone is protected should an economic crisis take place. This would entail, among many other things, regularizing the status of the millions of immigrants that for years (or even decades) have called the United States home. and yet are denied access to essential resources and opportunities that are available to other groups. This type of structural solution has been postponed for too long. Hopefully, COVID-19 will serve as a wake-up call.