(USA Features) Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot signed an executive order on Tuesday that will allow people without legal status inside the U.S. to receive coronavirus relief benefits.
The order makes illegal immigrants eligible for all coronavirus relief programs run by the city.
The mayor said that relief includes house assistance programs and low-interest small business loans the city administers.
Illegal immigrants living in the U.S. are not included in the $2.2. trillion federal coronavirus assistance measure that was recently approved by Congress.
That package, The Associated Press reports, is limited only to those who have filed federal income taxes using Social Security Numbers.
Chicago Alderman George Cardenas complained that left out people who are “the heart and soul of the service economy.”
“These individuals are getting hit the hardest,” he said. “They have nowhere to turn for support.”
Immigration activists have called for additional federal support for people living in the U.S. illegally but pay taxes via Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers.