Illegal alien advocate groups were disappointed in Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom after he vetoed a bill that would give illegal aliens unemployment benefits in California.
The California Immigrant Policy Center released a statement Thursday about the veto.
“One in 16 workers in California is excluded from unemployment benefits solely due to their immigration status. This exclusion has wiped out families’ life savings, pushed people into thousands of dollars of debt, and forced others to risk their lives to make ends meet,” read the statement.
The Excluded Workers Pilot Program would have provided $300 a week of unemployment benefits to “undocumented workers” for up to 20 weeks of the 2024 calendar year. A UC Merced report found that it would cost nearly $600 million to provided unemployment relief for all illegal aliens.
That report also said that the pilot program could apply to as many as 140,000 illegal aliens.
California would have become the third state in the union to offer unemployment benefits to illegal aliens behind New York and Colorado.
Newsom cited the cost of the program as one of the reasons he vetoed the bill. He said the initial cost to set up the program would have cost $200 million and another $20 million per year to keep it running.
He also cited his other efforts to extend state benefits to illegal aliens, including health care and a recent measure that allowed illegals to apply for state identification cards. Newsom also had Californians contribute $75 million to a coronavirus relief fund for illegal aliens in April 2020.
The CIPC said they would continue fighting for the unemployment legislation to be signed into law.
“This inclusive policy is critical to California’s resilience, well-being, and vision of a California for All,” the CIPC claimed.
Here’s more about Newsom’s illegal laws:
California taxpayers to pay $1.3B for health care for undocumented workers
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