More than a million U.S. citizens have been blocked from receiving stimulus checks because their immigrant spouses don't have Social Security numbers.
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.
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. “It’s such a basic thing that the government would protect its own citizens and the government is really abandoning U.S. citizens when they need help the most,” he added. “A lot of people really need this just to survive.”
In Baltimore, Ashlee Ramirez, a registered nurse in an emergency room, has spent the last month helping to intubate COVID-19 patients. With her hospital short on protective gear, she has spent her own money on materials to make masks and face shields as well as on heavy duty garbage bags in case gowns run out. But she has yet to receive any economic stimulus money, even though her husband, Fredy, a Honduran citizen, received a Social Security number in January.
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.
When she married her husband 16 years ago, she never imagined their daughter would graduate from college before Congress fixed the immigration system.
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