CORONA, Queens — A large group of demonstrators marched down Roosevelt Avenue Sunday with a mariachi band and a giant mask of Governor Andrew Cuomo; they called for Cuomo to tax New York’s billionaires and establish an “excluded workers fund.”
There are an estimated 350,000 undocumented New Yorkers that aren’t eligible for any type of federal stimulus aid. Corona, Queens— once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the city — is one of many immigrant strongholds now facing economic catastrophe.
“Many people in our community who have lost loved ones due to COVID have never seen any relief from government because they don’t qualify,” said New York State Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa.
New York State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz said many of those people have been forced to rely on emergency food pantries.
“Folks who have been working and contributing to taxes for decades, they couldn’t turn around and rely on unemployment,” Cruz said.
The Center for an Urban Future, a public policy think tank, found that more than half of New York’s working class immigrants are unemployed due to the pandemic-
“We all live here. This country was built by immigrants they should always remember this,” said Rakshya Ghimire of East Elmhurst
