California Immigrant Resilience Fund
The California Immigrant Resilience Fund provides direct cash assistance to immigrant Californians who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but are excluded from federal relief and ineligible for state safety-net programs.
Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), a network of foundations focused on immigration issues, has committed to raising $50 million to support direct financial assistance to families of undocumented immigrants through the California Immigrant Resilience Fund, with initial lead investments of $5.5 million from Emerson Collective, Blue Shield of California Foundation, The California Endowment, The James Irvine Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and an anonymous donor, among others. The Fund was set up as part of a public-private partnership with Governor Gavin Newsom, who has announced a separate $75 million state-financed immigrant relief fund, the first of its kind in the nation.
“I want to thank our philanthropic partners for joining with California and committing to raise an additional $50 million to provide disaster relief support to this population through the California Immigrant Resilience Fund". - Governor Gavin Newsom, April 15, 2020
Undocumented immigrants are concentrated in low-wage sectors hardest hit by the pandemic—from caregiving and hospitality to food service and landscaping.
They are more vulnerable to COVID-19, have lost their jobs or are seeing reduced hours, and have no other means of keeping a roof over their heads and putting food on the table.
Undocumented workers:
- Represent 10% of our state’s workforce
- Pay more than $3 billion in taxes annually
- They are excluded from federal COVID-19 relief and are ineligible for unemployment and other state safety-net programs.
Did you know?
- 1 in 2 Californian children has at least one immigrant parent.
- 1 in 3 undocumented immigrants in California has at least one U.S-citizen child under 18.
- 1 in 4 foreign-born Californians is undocumented.
- 1 in 5 citizen children in California has at least one undocumented family member.