Immigration Activists Praise Newsom

Local immigration activists responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s promise to spend $75 million to create a Disaster Relief Fund for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Under the plan immigrants who are not eligible for the federal stimulus would receive $500 checks.

In the days before Newsom took action, 200 activists held a protest in their vehicles calling for the governor to take action.

“This is a first good step towards the protection of immigrants in our state,” said Pasadena resident Pablo Alvarado. Is it sufficient? From our standpoint, these dollars available are a matter of life and death for many families.”

In March, Alvarado told Pasadena Now that jobs at the Pasadena Center had dried up. Millions of people have lost their jobs and 22 million people have filed for unemployment, but those numbers may not include immigrants.

Newsom came under fire after he made the announcement on Wednesday. #RecallNewsom began trending on Twitter.

“We feel a deep sense of gratitude for people that are in fear of deportations that are still addressing essential needs of tens of millions of Californians,” said Newsom, who noted 10 percent of the state’s workforce are immigrants living in the country illegally who paid more than $2.5 billion in state and local taxes last year.

The move came as stimulus checks began hitting bank accounts across the country with single people making less than $75,000 receiving $1,200 and married couples receiving $2,400 plus $500 per child under 17.

“The federal government collects money from the poor, including documented, undocumented citizens, residents, everybody,” said Yuni Parada. “And that money does not belong to the person in the white house, it belongs to everybody, and everybody should be eligible for the resources.”

During the campaign, President Trump vowed to round up and deport undocumented immigrants and build a 2,000-mile-long wall along the US/Mexico border.

“They came in illegally and we have a lot of people that are citizens in our country that won’t be able to have jobs,” Trump said when asked about helping immigrants.