Leslie wrote about California’s financial woes and how the legislation works on unnecessary issues.
Gov. Gavin Newsom warned the migrant crisis could break California.
The Democrats have a bill that could do just that.
Despite having no money, California’s legislature wants to give illegal immigrants unemployment benefits.
(e) California’s economy also suffers by excluding undocumented workers from this program. By partially replacing unemployed workers’ earnings, unemployment insurance (UI) benefits help alleviate the inherent reduction in consumption and economic activity that results when there is a drastic increase in unemployment. Economists maintain that UI benefits produce at least $1.61 of economic stimulus for every $1 of benefits paid. Indeed, one economist found that during the Great Recession, every $1 of UI benefits produced about $2 dollars of economic impact. Similarly, UI benefits help employers and the labor market by supporting workers to find the best matched positions.(f) While the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extreme consequences of undocumented workers’ exclusion from unemployment insurance, this problem has existed for decades and it will only become more urgent. Wildfires, severe weather events, economic fluctuations, seasonal changes in workforce needs—all of these factors will continue to cause unemployment. And for most low-income individuals, unemployment without a safety net is a crisis no matter when it occurs.(g) To rectify the unjust exclusion of immigrant workers from an essential social safety net program and build a safer and more resilient economy, this bill would require the Employment Development Department to establish an Excluded Workers Program to provide weekly monetary assistance to unemployed workers who are ineligible for state or federal unemployment insurance benefits due to their immigration status.
S.B. 227 would give individuals “eligible for the program” $300 per week of unemployment in 2025.
The Democrats claim the money the illegal immigrants supposedly contribute to the state’s economy. From Fox News:
“We cannot take people’s money, take people’s taxes, take people’s labor and then deny them the very benefits and rights that they deserve and that they have earned,” Supervisor Shamann Walton said at a protest before the board met.Payroll taxes on illegal immigrants contribute $485 million a year to the state’s Unemployment Insurance system, according to the Safety Net for All Coalition, a group of over 120 organizations across California seeking to expand welfare programs for undocumented workers. The weekly checks plus administrative expenses in the proposed legislation is estimated to cost $356 million in state funds.”Every day, undocumented immigrants contribute to California’s economic prosperity in agriculture, construction, clothing and other industries,” said the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. María Elena Durazo. “Yet immigrants continue to be shut out from California’s economic success due to unjust exclusions from the safety net.”
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