CARES Class Action Alleges Children of Immigrants Unlawfully Denied Benefits

U.S. citizens who are children of undocumented parents are allegedly being denied CARES Act relief, according to a recent class action lawsuit.

Several minor children have taken legal action against the United States and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, alleging that a CARES Act provision “violates the equal protection principles” of the Fifth Amendment by denying payments to children of immigrants.

The CARES Act was passed in March, providing $2 trillion in relief to businesses and consumers. Many individuals have received payments from this based on their previous tax filings or those of their parents.

However, the recent CARES Act relief class action lawsuit argues that the children of immigrants are being blocked from these benefits.

“The economic impact payments are designed to enable recipients to make basic expenditures—for example, on groceries, rent, and healthcare costs—while at the same time injecting cash flow into an economy that has been hit by a precipitous drop in demand,” the CARES Act relief class action lawsuit notes.

“But the CARES Act discriminates against and excludes from this expansive aid program one of the country’s most vulnerable groups: U.S. citizen children of undocumented parents.”

According to the CARES Act relief class action lawsuit, a provision in the CARES Act prohibits payments to children of adults who filed their taxes using an individual taxpayer identification number or ITIN. These numbers can be used instead of a Social Security number when filing taxes and are reportedly used mostly by immigrants.

As a result of this provision, children of immigrants are allegedly denied CARES Act relief despite their citizenship.

“By making a social security number a prerequisite for receiving an economic impact payment, the CARES Act not only intentionally denies adult undocumented immigrants the otherwise available $1,200 payment, but also intentionally denies their U.S. citizen children—solely because of the parents’ alienage—the otherwise available $500 payment,” the plaintiffs argue in their immigrant discrimination class action lawsuit.

The CARES Act relief class action lawsuit argues that this denial is unfair and harmful, especially considering that immigrants and their children are being significantly impacted by the coronavirus.

These children’s parents may be affected by the mass layoffs happening all over the country or may be working in high risk industries such as meatpacking, farming, food production, health care, child care, as well as restaurant and custodial work.

“Immigrants make up almost a fifth of front-line workers during this pandemic. It is an absolute outrage that we are relying on immigrant families to care for our loved ones and provide our essential supplies and yet denying their children the support they are entitled to as U.S. citizens,” Class counsel said in a statement to The Washington Post.

The minors and their parents are allegedly facing significant economic hardship during this global pandemic.

Many of the parents have been laid off or are facing reduced income as a result of coronavirus closures, leading to uncertainty about how they will pay bills and put food on the table.

Some of the plaintiffs have allegedly been forced to turn to community relief and school provided food in order to feed their children.

According to the immigrant discrimination class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs’ economic hardship would be alleviated by CARES Act relief.

These payments would allegedly “put food on the table for weeks and help keep a roof over their heads.” Unfortunately, due to the lack of payments, the plaintiffs say they face only uncertainty and further hardships.

The plaintiffs seek to represent two Classes in their CARES Act relief class action lawsuit – one for children and one for parents.

First, the minor plaintiffs seek to represent a Class of U.S. citizen children under the age of 17 who have been denied payments for “qualified children” under the CARES Act due to their parents being an undocumented immigrant with no Social Security number.

Second, the parent plaintiffs seek to represent a Class of people whose U.S. citizen children have been denied payments under the CARES Act because at least one of the children’s parents are undocumented immigrants with no Social Security numbers.

Have you been unfairly denied CARES Act relief? Share your story in the comment section below.

Plaintiffs and the proposed Class are represented by Jonathan L. Backer, Robert D. Friedman, Amy L. Marshak, and Mary B. McCord of the Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and Leslie Book of Villanova University’s Charles Widger School of Law.

The Immigrant CARES Act Relief Class Action Lawsuit is R.V., et al. v. Steven T. Mnuchin, et al., Case No. 8:20-cv-01148-PWG, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

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