NJ Immigrants Launch Hunger Strike To Demand COVID Relief Funds

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York lawmakers plan to give undocumented workers direct cash assistance in their latest budget deal. And now advocates in New Jersey are pressuring their leaders to do the same.

"We are the backbone of this pandemic and have seen zero dollars and zero cents," said Deya Aldana, a lead organizer with Make the Road New Jersey. Aldana gathered with a group of immigrants outside the Trenton statehouse on Wednesday to launch a fasting campaign as lawmakers held budget hearings indoors. 

So far, 34 people have joined the hunger strike. The campaign follows a similar one across the Hudson where hunger strikers from sister organization Make the Road New York refused food for 23 days until state leaders agreed to create a relief fund for immigrant workers who lost income during the pandemic. The $2.1 billion fund is the largest such aid program in the country, according to The CITY. 

For more than a year now, New Jersey immigrant advocates have called on Gov. Phil Murphy to fund $600 weekly payments to undocumented workers who don't qualify for federal aid or unemployment benefits. But Murphy's proposed budget doesn't include direct aid for immigrants and he hasn't proposed another plan for relief.

"The administration is exploring ways to further assist members of our immigrant community during this challenging time," Murphy spokeswoman Alyana Alfaro said in an email. "The Governor understands that communities of color have had to bear an outsized burden during the pandemic."

She said Murphy has backed efforts to expand driver's licenses to all people regardless of immigration status and proposed several programs in his budget to help families regardless of status. That includes a Cover All Kids initiative that would expand health care to the state's nearly 90,000 uninsured children, including undocumented kids, and increased funding to provide immigrants facing deportation with legal representation.