Marco Gamboa, a pastor at El Shaddai Christian Center, and his daughter Michelle, 14, wave flags during a drive-in rally at the Sawyer State Office Building on International Workers’ Day Friday, May 1, 2020. Demonstrators asked for immigrant workers and families to be included in federal assistance during the coronavirus outbreak.
Saturday, May 2, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Cuauhtémoc Sanchez’s eyes welled with tears when speaking about a recent trip to visit one of his colleagues. He delivered a box of food for the Las Vegas man, who has been out of work in the construction industry because of coronavirus-related job cuts.
The proud man offered his work tools in exchange for the food before accepting the charity. After all, his pride wasn’t going to feed his children, Sanchez said the man told him.
Sanchez, sporting his neon-yellow construction sweatshirt, spoke from the Sawyer State Office Building on Friday to advocate for undocumented workers left out of pandemic stimulus aid.
Dozens of demonstrators urged Gov. Steve Sisolak and Nevada’s congressional delegation to not forget about the state's 200,000 undocumented workers, many of whom are out of work or facing a reduction in hours.
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The deadly respiratory illness, which is crippling world economies and straining societies, doesn’t discriminate, Sanchez said. Despite nationality or skin color, the coronavirus has afflicted humans alike, said Sanchez, an undocumented heavy machinery construction worker, who has lived in Las Vegas for more than 20 years.
In Spanish he said, “We are human brothers. We’re humans who would hurt the same for the death of a relative or cry the same tears if our children were going hungry.”
Undocumented workers, some of whom pay federal taxes through an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, weren’t included in the $2.2 trillion stimulus package to combat financial distress caused by state shutdowns over the novel virus. Married couples who file jointly, in which one of the spouses is undocumented, also don't qualify for stimulus money, according to reports.
The Texas Tribune reported this week about a lawsuit filed on behalf of six such plaintiffs by a civil rights group against the federal government.
California, which is offering $500 to 150,000 undocumented immigrants, became the first state to take such a step. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would spend $75 million of taxpayer money to create a disaster relief fund for undocumented immigrants.
Sisolak’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday about the demonstration or possible action, if any, he might consider for undocumented workers.
Undocumented Nevadans also don’t qualify for unemployment benefits, food stamps or health care benefits.
“Gov. Sisolak has shown true leadership in the face of the COVID-19 crisis,” said Bliss Requa-Trautz, director of Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center, one of the advocate groups that organized the event, in a statement. The governor’s office is aware that thousands of essential Nevadans have been excluded from necessary relief efforts.”
Requa-Trautz said that Arriba and the National Domestic Workers Alliance had organized the COVID-19 Immigrant Families Fund to fundraise for families affected by immigration restrictions.
Through about $20,000, they’ve been able to help a number of people with direct financial support, including $250 for essential purchases.
“There are so many amazing responses in the community to provide support,” she said, “but it just doesn’t go far enough. We cannot fill the role that the government needs to fill in terms of supporting all the essential Nevadans.”
Demonstration participants gathered late morning at the Historic Commercial Center District on Sahara Avenue. They honked car horns and attached balloons and protest signs to their vehicles. Compared with other recent protests, no participants could be seen without face coverings, and they maintained a distance between each other.
Old Glory waved alongside smaller flags of Latin American nations.
Francis Garcia, a Honduran with temporary protected status, said the U.S. had excluded immigrant workers from help, even when it benefits from “our labor force.”
“We’re here to tell Sisolak that we’re neither invisible nor mute,” said Garcia, an organizer with the National TPS Alliance.
Emperatriz Alvarez is an undocumented worker who cleans houses and pays taxes, but has not received money from the government. Alvarez, a resident of Las Vegas for some 30 years, echoed Sanchez, noting that the virus doesn’t discriminate. “COVID-19 grabs onto anyone. We’re also at risk.”
She said work had slowed for her and her colleagues, which she says is understandable. Her employers don’t want to risk them bringing the virus to their homes, and she doesn’t want to catch it at work, she noted.
If she were documented, she said, she would still be out protesting for her family and friends.
After the speeches, the cheers and the chants, Sanchez spoke about his modern fears. The novel virus hasn’t yet afflicted anyone in his family, but he fears catching it at work and bringing it home, where one of his children has special needs.
He’s had friends contract the virus who have since recovered. But he continues to worry that someone close to him may not survive the disease, reaching out to him with a final plea, “Hey bro, I don’t know if I’ll return. Please take care of my family, my kids or my Mom.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
