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Photo: Essential workers and advocates rallied in Queens last week asking the city. Edwin Martínez/Courtesy El Diario, 2020.

The US CARES Act and Latinx Workers Racial Capitalism at

Work written by Grace Hunley

The economic slump resulting from the coronavirus pandemic has hit minority groups particularly hard in the United States, especially those of the Latinx community. According to the Pew Research Center, unemployment rates in the United States in June 2020 were the highest for people identifying as Latinx at 14.5%, with US-born Latinx people and Latinx women having higher rates of unemployment than foreign-born Latinx people and Latinx men respectively. Similarly, 59% of Latinx people in the US claim that they have experienced unemployment or pay cuts due to the pandemic, compared to 49% of the total population of the US. While one reason for the inequities presented in these statistics is the high number of Latinx workers in service-sector jobs that were shut down during the pandemic, policy issues are contributing to and exacerbating the economic hardships of Latinx people during the pandemic.

Racial capitalism is a major cause of the longstanding racial and socioeconomic disparities that have become exceedingly evident during the pandemic. ‘Racial capitalism’, a term coined by Cedric Robinson in his book Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, emerged from the world histories of slavery, violence, imperialism and genocide as a capitalist system that is heavily influenced by racism and nationalism. Throughout the course of capitalism, racialisation has allowed governments and corporations to profit off of black and brown peoples by commodifying them. The most striking example of this has been the enslavement of native and African peoples, starting during the colonisation of the Americas.

Racial capitalism persists in current US policies. As an example, many Latinx children are being separated from their families and detained in private detention centres around the US-Mexico border. This policy has resulted in hefty profits for the prisons as NBC News reports that it costs around $775 per night to keep each child. The recent CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) carries two policies that also exemplify this, if less conspicuously: denying stimulus aid to workers paying taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and denying stimulus aid to mixed-status families – those families that include

both documented and undocumented workers. ing to the Center for American Progress, it is approxiIt is no secret that migrant labour is a staple of the mated that around 16.2 million people were living in American economy. In the healthcare system alone, mixed-status families in the US in 2017. The CARES Act 1 in 4 doctors in the US are immigrants and 29,000 denied these people, including US citizens, stimulus healthcare professionals are part of the Deferred Action check payments if their spouse or their dependent was for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Council of listed on their tax returns using an ITIN number. Under Foreign Relations’ Think Global Health also reports that these policies, many American Latinx people are fur53% of farmworkers in the US are immigrants, many of ther disadvantaged. By forcing mixed-status families whom are undocumented. Latinx migrants, document- to pay taxes, and then not allowing families to receive ed and undocumented, are highly represented workers stimulus aid from the CARES Act due to filing their taxes in the health system and food system – both of which with an ITIN, the US government is fundamentally capihave been essential during the pandemic. Regardless talising off of the mixed-status migrant families. of these contributions to the American economy, those who are undocumented and working illegally are des- US history has demonstrated, through African enslaveignated as criminals under US federal law. At the same ment, Japanese internment camps, Mexican border time, the US government has no imprisonment, and the recent Black issue with taking tax dollars from undocumented migrants. Undoc- “The US governLives Matter movement against police brutality, to name a few examples, umented migrants can apply for ment is clearly that many racist policies permeate the an ITIN number instead of the So- culture of the US government. Though cial Security number (SSN), which profiting off of their these two policies from the CARES requires them to pay federal taxes to the US government regard- immigration status” Act may not intentionally single out Latinx families, they ultimately affect less of their immigration status. non-white immigrant communities, According to the IRS, the most the largest being Latinx people in the recent data shows there were 4.4 million people that US. Latinx migrants are a vital part of the US economy paid $23.6 billion in taxes using an ITIN number in 2015. as evident through their contributions to the US govThis scheme was created in 1996 to increase the feder- ernment in the form of labour and taxes, which are enal tax revenue; via this, both US employers and the US couraged through the use of the ITIN scheme. The US government enable the employment of undocument- government is clearly profiting off of their immigration ed workers. status or the status of their family members, meaning Yet, even though the US government requires that they aid packages that their tax dollars are contributing to. pay the federal taxes that partly fund the US coronavirus packages, undocumented migrants are unable These policies exemplify the US government attemptto apply for any stimulus money from the CARES Act ing to erase the Latinx migrant contributions to the based on their immigration status. Many Democrat- American economy. It severely disadvantages many ic senators including Patty Murray (Washington) and American Latinx people, whilst the US continues to Mazie Hirano (Hawaii) noted this issue in their letter to benefit from their skills and employment. People who Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, are marginalised and exploited by governments face that called for including workers who pay taxes using long-term social and economic repercussions, and an ITIN number in the next aid package. there is no doubt that the US government’s current polAnother discriminatory policy that affects many Latinx of Latinx people to come. The Covid-19 pandemic profamilies in the US is the refusal to grant coronavirus vides yet another example of how racial capitalism is stimulus aid to mixed-status families, including to the alive and thriving in the United States. members of the family that are US citizens. Accordthat many Latinx people are unable to benefit from the icies outlined in the CARES Act will affect generations