Former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders believes it’s illegal aliens, not Americans, who are feeling the true hurt during the COVID-19 shutdown, which has closed the doors of many businesses, restaurants and factories across the country.
“One group of people who we have not focused on enough as a nation -- people who are maybe feeling even more pain than other folks in our country -- are the undocumented,” Sanders said, referring to the 11 million-plus people residing and working in the Unted States unlawfully. “Because they come to us from a different position. they are often folks who are on the front lines of our economy exposing themselves everyday to the illness as they interact with other people. But because they are undocumented, they are often nervous to go to the doctor, go to the hospital.
Sanders then lamented that illegal aliens aren’t receiving $1,200 taxpayer-funded checks from the government like those given to American citizens.
“So how do you survive right now if you’ve lost your job, if you’re nervous about going to the doctor or the hospital, because you’re undocumented, if you don’t have a whole lot of money in the bank because you’re a low-income worker, what happens to you in the midst of this crisis?” Sanders said.
To date, more than 26 million Americans have lost their jobs since the outbreak began, overwhelming state unemployment systems and emptying aid coffers in a matter of weeks. More than 100,000 restaurants, many of them family-owned, are expected to go out of business thanks to the loss of revenue from the economic shutdown.