COVID-19

While the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone, people of color are disproportionately impacted.

We are living in a time of concurrent global crises. There is the COVID-19 pandemic at the forefront of our minds. It is forcing us to stay home, constantly wash our hands, and wonder when this time of uncertainty will end. Despite this immediate threat, there is still the persistently looming climate crisis. While its presence may be less obvious, it continues to affect communities across the world.

Congress passed another bill to blunt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on April 23. Unlike the prior bills that Congress passed, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266) is very limited. It includes $484 billion in funding to replenish the small business loan program, hospitals, and COVID-19 testing.

The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for months to come. Congress has taken some good initial steps to expand key safety net programs and help stabilize our economy. But to ensure the wellbeing of our communities and country in the long term, lawmakers must provide assistance for as long as it’s needed, not just during the initial spike of the pandemic.

These are difficult times for everyone. But immigrant communities are facing particularly severe risk and hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The profound crisis our nation faces as a result of COVID-19 may seem like good reason to focus on what is closest to home. It’s painful enough to witness and share the suffering of those immediately around us without looking any further afield.

Congress just passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (H.R. 748), a third bill responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drilled into us a standard set of precautionary measures: Wash your hands, maintain distance from other people, and avoid groups. But there is a population within our society that is unable to take the precautions that we take for granted: incarcerated people.

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a global pandemic. In the U.S., the concerned public responded by stocking up on supplies, leaving grocery store aisles empty of rice, eggs, and yes, toilet paper.

Following the passage of an $8 billion package earlier in the month, Congress just passed a second emergency bill aimed at addressing the economic impacts of COVID-19.