BOSTON -- Groups are calling on Massachusetts to open up the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to working residents who pay taxes but may not qualify for a Social Security number.

A new report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center pointed out the law requires everyone who works to pay taxes regardless of immigration status, but immigration status bars thousands of Commonwealth residents from accessing a key tax break meant for low-income working families.

Luz Arevalo, senior attorney for Greater Boston Legal Services, said the EITC disparity has existed for decades, and the pandemic put another spotlight on it for many of her clients.

"So many of these workers have the type of job that didn't stop, that didn't cease during the pandemic," Arevalo explained. "The grocery workers, the meatpackers, folks working in bakeries, some of our clients had to continue going to nursing homes."

The report noted in Massachusetts, between 18,000 and 19,000 households miss out on the Earned Income Tax Credit, which helps more than 350,000 families make ends meet, solely because they lack a Social Security number, when they would otherwise be eligible.

If even one member of a household has an Income Tax Identification Number, which the IRS provides to immigrants who cannot get a Social Security number, the entire family is excluded from the EITC program.

Massachusetts' state EITC matches 30% of the federal credit, which doesn't accept income-tax ID numbers, but Arevalo noted it doesn't mean the Commonwealth can't have different eligibility requirements.

"I really support more of the Tax ID-blind policy when it comes to figuring out how much people pay in tax but also how much benefit they should get," Arevalo asserted.

States such as California, Colorado, Maryland and New Mexico have already expanded their state earned income-tax credits to residents with either a Social Security or an income tax ID number. Washington state has a similar credit that also includes all resident taxpayers.

More than 60 Connecticut immigrant advocate groups sent a letter to Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., to safeguard asylum rights.

Murphy is the lead negotiator for the supplemental funding request for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Congressional Republicans asked for border protection funding to accompany the foreign aid package, which Democrats have agreed to. However, the final version of the bill would have severe consequences for asylum seekers.

Constanza Segovia, organizer for the group Hartford Deportation Defense, said the right to declare asylum should not be negotiable.

"They would be backtracking on decades of work and protections that really are non-controversial in terms of anyone concerned with human rights and the human right to seek refuge," Segovia asserted.

Segovia and other Connecticut groups are offering other suggestions for border security, such as increasing funding for asylum processing, reducing work permit waiting times and providing better resources for municipal and state governments to provide better services. Senate Republicans blocked the funding package in an initial procedural vote, to express their intent on passing the border bill as it is.

Connecticut and other states have found the number of migrants arriving is too much to handle. Although they have called on the federal government for funding assistance, their cries have fallen on deaf ears.

Segovia noted there is a disconnect between the number of people seeking asylum in the U.S., and those to whom it is granted.

"I've talked to people who are experiencing serious violence and still are not able to have a successful asylum case," Segovia pointed out. "To me what that means is the law could be less restrictive to include some other forms of violence."

Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reported in the past 20 years, asylum grants are only around 46% of all grants of relief the court awarded.

From construction and hospitality to business creation and consumer spending, a new report shows the oversized contributions immigrants are making to the labor force in New Mexico. The report shows that immigrants to Santa Fe County made up more than one in seven workers in 2019.

Asma Esa, manager of state and local initiatives with the American Immigration Council, explained their contributions cannot be overvalued in creating the area's vibrancy.

"Even though immigrants made up 11.1% of the county's total population, they actually made up 15% of its employed labor force, as well as 15.2% of the working-age population," Esa said.

The report, released by the American Immigration Council, also shows immigrants in Santa Fe County paid more than $122 million in taxes and held over $365 million in spending power in 2019.

Marcela Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido - a statewide group founded in 1995 to promote worker and racial justice, said Santa Fe, like other cities, has an aging workforce and needs to employ and recruit younger workers - while also figuring out how to maximize the contributions of immigrants.

"And to be fully integrated into the city's economic development plans - we want to have more access to workforce development opportunities, and really be a part of the city's long-term vision, Diaz said.

According to the report, the 16,000 immigrants living in Santa Fe County in 2019 mostly arrived from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Roughly 93% reported they had lived in the United States for more than five years.


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A new survey found immigrant students need better help in school.

The YouthTruth, Re-Imagining Migration survey was designed to examine the perspective of immigrant students as to how they are doing in school. The survey showed immigrant students do not feel they can be themselves there. There were also middling scores when asked if they feel like part of their school's community.

Adam Strom, executive director of the nonprofit Re-Imagining Migration, described the importance of an immigrant student's native language to their education.

"If you're in a school where folks are encouraging you to speak your own home language when appropriate, your school experience is much better," Strom asserted. "You have a much stronger sense of belonging. You have a much stronger sense that your peers like you. You see yourself in textbooks more, you see yourself in the classroom more and what's being taught."

He noted if schools take the opposite approach, it can increase a students' sense of isolation. While there has been more attention paid to immigrant student's mental health, cultural and attitudinal barriers like stigma were a factor. Strom argued schools being more inclusive of immigrant students and their families can improve their education.

Though there are ways to ensure immigrant students feel included, there are some challenges to making the strategies work. Along with anti-immigrant sentiments flooding the country, teacher shortages mean educators cannot be one-on-one with their students.

Jimmy Simpson Jr., director of partnerships for YouthTruth, said another factor is immigrant students are more than immigrants.

"Thinking that there are migrant students also part of the LGBTQ community, Black immigrant students or brown, BIPOC immigrant students," Simpson outlined. "They have very different types of experiences than a migrant student who may be white."

Simpson added seeing people beyond just being immigrants goes a long way to creating a welcoming environment for immigrant students in schools.