Connecticut Lawmakers Push State COVID-19 Stimulus for Illegal Aliens

By David Jaroslav | FAIR Take | May 2020

With each passing week of the COVID-19 pandemic, additional states are considering so-called “stimulus payments” to illegal aliens. Despite the economic devastation wreaked by this pandemic that is leaving states cash-strapped and requiring them to cut services and benefits for American citizens and legal immigrants, they continue to prioritize those in the country illegally.  First it was California, then Massachusetts and New Jersey. Now it’s Connecticut.

Forty-seven Connecticut State legislators recently sent a letter to Governor Ned Lamont (D) asking him to set up a coronavirus “disaster assistance fund” for illegal aliens, similar to California’s.  They included thirty members of the state’s 151-member House of Representatives and seventeen of its 36-member State Senate, including Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D-New Haven).

The legislators expect the fund to cost at least $20 million in taxpayer funds, to be matched by $10 million from various open-borders groups.  The open-borders groups themselves, however, predict it would be closer to $150 million to cover what they claim is “necessary.”  However, that projection may be low as well. In 2017, FAIR estimated Connecticut taxpayers already spent over $854 million per year on the more than 150,000 illegal aliens in Connecticut.

To date, no legislation has been introduced to create the fund and start sending payments to illegal aliens. However, given the number of prominent state legislators who signed the letter, it appears to be only a matter of time. 

Connecticut had already been facing a budget crunch even before the pandemic. Now, it is anticipated the state will have a $934 million deficit this year and be in the hole $2.3 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2020.  At a time the state will deplete its entire “rainy day” fund and likely require hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts and millions in new taxes, the state’s focus should be to help Connecticut citizens and legal residents who are suffering and not to provide “stimulus funds” for illegal aliens.