Editorial: Undocumented workers should be able to get unemployment benefits when they're laid off

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

67% : In 2020, the Fiscal Policy Institute estimated that over the previous decade California employers paid about $4.4 billion into the unemployment system based on the work of undocumented immigrants.
63% : Undocumented workers are excluded from receiving unemployment benefits because the state's unemployment insurance program is jointly funded by the federal government, which bars undocumented people from working legally.
58% : There's a proposal in the state Legislature to remedy this injustice for many of these undocumented workers, Senate Bill 227, authored by Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), would create the Excluded Workers Program, a fund separate from the state's unemployment program that would provide unemployment payments to undocumented workers who meet requirements similar to those imposed on workers who are U.S. citizens or otherwise authorized to work in the country.
54% : The Excluded Worker Program would make it possible for the state to pay unemployment benefits to undocumented workers when they are laid off, if they can prove they worked at least 93 hours or earned a minimum of $1,300 in a three-month period in the previous 12 months.
51% : Newsom was right to try to rein in state spending, given the expectation of a state budget deficit of $22.5 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.
46% : Excluded from unemployment benefits, however, are an estimated 1.6 million undocumented workers, whose labor we rely on to pick vegetables and fruits in the fields, care for children, mow lawns and build new homes, even though many of these workers pay taxes.
42% : Besides, employers are already paying taxes into the state's unemployment program for these workers.

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