CreepyMcCreeperson
Veteran
She works as a film producer and her small business has ground to a halt, forcing her and her husband to eat red beans and rice most nights, scramble to find small business loans and apply for medical assistance for their two children.
So the 44-year-old woman from the Midwest, who asked that her name not be used to protect her privacy, has had to bite her tongue as friends have celebrated the arrival of economic stimulus checks.
As a U.S. citizen whose children are also U.S. citizens, she is excluded from the government’s $2-trillion coronavirus financial relief package because she files her taxes jointly with her husband, a Mexican citizen from Guadalajara.
“It’s the biggest slap in face that the government left us out,” she said. “It’s already such a stressful time. This just increases the stigma and feeling of shame. It feels like a very big betrayal.”
More than 1 million U.S. citizens, in states as far afield as California and Pennsylvania, have been blocked from receiving stimulus checks because they are married to immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers.
The exclusion affects millions of U.S. citizens, including children. About 1.2 million immigrants who lack legal status are married to a U.S. citizen, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
According to the law, any family that files taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which the Internal Revenue Service issues to workers who lack Social Security numbers, cannot receive an Economic Impact Payment — unless one spouse is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces.
The Midwestern film producer lived a pretty comfortable upper-middle class life until last month. She and her husband made just under $150,000 last year, own their home outright and have little debt. But her 2020 work was not slated to start until March 15 and was canceled just before that date as a result of the pandemic. So far this year, her business has netted $800.
She and her husband have cut back. For breakfast and lunch, they have relied on the city to provide free breakfasts and lunch boxes for the children. They are also researching medical assistance for her children, including occupational therapy and speech therapy for their son who has Mannose-binding lectin deficiency, a condition that affects the immune system and makes him particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
“We’re clearly not taken care of given how much we pay in taxes,” she said, noting that they paid $30,000 in taxes last year.
“It’s very, very scary. We are the people that live in the shadows. We can’t advocate for our family.”
