The coronavirus crash has completely impoverished New York City’s huge illegal-migrant population, so it needs a bailout from billionaires, says a far left group of open border activists.
The advocacy group, Make the Road NY, wants to raise $5.5 billion from 120 New York billionaires to provide roughly $750 per week in aid for up to 1.2 million illegal migrants and their dependents. Numerous Democratic legislators back the campaign.
The New York Times gave the draft legislation a boost on November 15, with an excellent video report that showcased some of the unemployed, illegal migrants who were trying to earn some cash as street vendors:
On one corner, Cristina Sanchez stood forlornly at a produce stand. She had not sold a single thing. During the pandemic she had lost her job, and then her rented room, triggering a frantic hustle to survive: First she sold produce, then tacos, then produce again …
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“This has affected my children [in Mexico] a lot,” Cristina said, as she started to cry. “I try to tell them that because there’s no steady work, whatever I make is only enough for me to survive for the day.”
The New York Times showcased one of the group’s members, “Gerardo,” a Mexican who arrived in 2006:
He decided to sell tacos de alambre — made with steak, chiles, bacon and cheese — on the street. The owner of a local deli let him use an enclosed sidewalk stand at night, free of charge. During the day it sells smoothies.
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Gerardo’s sales have not been brisk. His tacos cost two for $5. He needs to sell at least 130 each day, a target he often misses by half.
The group also wants the state legislature to approve more licenses for street vendors — even though the extra supply of vendors would reduce income for the native-born and immigrant who operate the existing stands.
The Make the Road group said its surveys showed that:
92% of respondents reported that either they or another earner in their household has lost their job or income as a result of the crisis.
84% of respondents are now themselves unemployed, with 88% of them reporting job loss due to COVID-19.
Only 5% of respondents received unemployment benefits in the last month.
90% of household cleaners had lost their jobs. Those that were working had fewer clients than usual and had lost income.
The group’s survey says that 28 percent of renters in New York pay more than 50 percent of their wages on housing in the city’s migrant-crowded neighborhoods.
The scale of the imported poverty is huge but unclear.
Make the Road claims 1.2 million people “who haven’t received any aid,” while the New York Times says the city includes roughly half a million illegals.
The leaders in New York City choose to build their service and real-estate economies on cheap imported labor, so denying wages, jobs, and home to the many Americans who did live – or want to live — in the city.
Now the coronavirus crash is threatening the city’s economy by pushing out impoverished migrants, and their departure is pressuring employers to raise wages high enough to attract Americans to jobs in New York.
New York’s problem with impoverished illegal migrants is mirrored in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Los Angeles.
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