Latin Americans Are Among the Hardest Hit by the Coronavirus Outbreak in the United States. Here’s why.

Source: https://www.latimes.com/espanol/california/articulo/2020-05-18/el-precio-de-ser-esencial-los-trabajadores-de-servicios-latinos-son-los-mas-afectados-por-el-coronavirus

By: Maria Ascencio and Sebastian Beyenburg

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the KCL Latin American Society or El Cortao.

Note on terminology: Given the nature of this article, we make use of the '“Latinx” neologism to refer to the people from Latin American origin and/or descent in the United States, as opposed to Latino(s) or Latina(s). We also make use of the term Hispanic, used to describe people related to the Spanish language or culture, given that it is often used in official figures and statistics.

The United States currently has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, having recently passed the devastating milestone of 100.000 deaths. Besides its devastating effect on the economy, the healthcare system and human lives, the pandemic has exposed a number of socio-political issues that have been bubbling under the surface for decades. While the virus is affecting everyone's lives, some are much more affected than others. In particular, it seems that Latin Americans, regardless of their citizenship or migratory status, have been among the hardest hit by coronavirus in the U.S. 

With this article, we seek to explore how and why Latin Americans are being affected differently as opposed to other ethnic groups. For this, we consider factors such as the disproportionate number of Latin Americans being classified as ‘essential workers’, as well as a larger incidence of chronic illnesses. We also take a look at the problems relating to the legal status of many Latinx, and how the Trump administration has misused the pandemic to actively disenfranchise them both inside the U.S. and at the southern border.  

How are Latinx people being affected differently as opposed to others in the U.S.?

While it might just be too early to get the statistics that can best answer this question, current figures paint a gloomy picture. Early May studies suggest that Latinx people have constituted an approximate 64.9% of  Covid-19 deaths among patients aged 18 to 49 in the state of California alone [1]. Another preliminary study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that compiled available data from New York City identified death rates among Latinx persons to be 74.3 deaths per 100,000 population, as opposed to 45.2 deaths per 100,000 for white persons [2]. This certainly only offers a glimpse into what is a more complicated reality, but the ultimate  message is that Latin Americans are among the groups most disproportionately affected by this pandemic. 

What factors have contributed to these disparities? 

Latinx people represent a large portion of essential workers 

The majority of U.S. states have issued ‘stay-at-home orders’ and social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Only workers that are deemed ‘essential’ are allowed to continue frequenting their workplace. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, most Hispanic and Latin American workers work in construction and other services that both the federal government and most states have defined as essential. This includes agriculture, forestry, fishing, cleaning and maintenance [3]. Other racial groups such as Asian or White mostly work in sales, legal, engineering, arts or leisure industries. Because most jobs of Latinx people are deemed essential, they often do not have the option of staying home, making them more likely to have a higher exposure to the virus [4]. 

This is made particularly evident by the effect of coronavirus on California’s farmworkers. Labour contractors estimate that around 75% of America’s harvest workers live in the country illegally [5]. The remaining share is made up by those workers who are in the U.S. under H2A visas, which allow foreign farmhands to perform temporary jobs considered otherwise unfillable [6]. 

In most instances, personal protective equipment (PPE) has not been made sufficiently available to workers and social distancing measures seem impossible to enforce when field labour requires to be in close contact for a prolonged period of time. Farmworkers have been equipped with a letter from the Department of Homeland Security stating that they are ‘considered essential to the food supply chain’ [7], meaning their chances of being deported are lower for now. Crucially, however, this letter does not guarantee any protection from deportation in the future. The recognition that foreign farmworkers have always been essential for America’s food supply is still not forthcoming. 

 Incidence of chronic illnesses 

It is now widely accepted that older people and those with underlying medical conditions are more likely to develop serious illness if infected with Covid-19. Amongst those underlying conditions, the WHO reports cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer as the most commonly presented [8]. These illnesses happen to be some of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Hispanic and Latinx groups are 35% less prone to heart disease and 49% less prone to developing cancer when compared to other racial groups in the U.S., but they are also 50% more likely to develop diabetes, kidney and liver disease. At the same time, those Latin Americans who do develop heart disease or cancer are 68% more likely to not have it checked on time [9].

Legal Status and the Trump Administration

In the United States

An estimated 21% of Latinx living in the U.S. have no reported legal status [10]. Indeed, as of 2017, Hispanics/Latinx accounted for 73% of approximately 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, this is problematic, mostly because those living in the U.S. illegally are excluded from having access to healthcare and federal relief, thus leaving them much more exposed to the virus.  

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), one of the most important legislations in response to the pandemic, was passed by the U.S. Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed into law by President Trump on March 27th, 2020. This $2 trillion economic relief package is quoted to “provide fast and direct economic assistance for American workers, families, and small businesses, and preserve jobs for American industries” [11].

Under the CARES Act, the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) programme provides relief for unemployed workers who are ineligible for their state unemployment insurance or have run out of state benefits. The CARES Act also provides one-time cash payments of $1,200 to individuals earning less than $75,000 and who filed taxes for either 2018 or 2019 using a valid Social Security Number (SSN). 

The vast majority of unauthorized immigrants, except for those with work authorization - such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients - are automatically excluded from such benefits. According to a UCLA report, 56% of Latinx-majority neighborhoods in the Los Angeles County have a high proportion of residents at high risk for not receiving individual relief funds [12]. 

The impossibility of accessing benefits, sick leave or health care and the greater risk of exposure to the virus makes for a deadly cocktail. Unable to protect themselves sufficiently, Latinx people who fall ill face job-loss and subsequent homelessness. 

At the U.S.-Mexico border 

Sadly, being at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19, and suffering from its complications, all while not being able to access quality healthcare, are not the only ways in which the pandemic has impacted Latinx groups. The situation at the southern border highlights how the Trump administration has politicised the virus to push through with what have been long-desired immigration policies. Migrants, who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, are being expelled to Mexico at a record-breaking average of 96 minutes under emergency coronavirus measures [13]. The United States Customs and Border Protection policy states that since migrants could be carriers of the virus, they pose a potential health risk to the U.S. and thus must be expelled [14]. Consequently, most asylum-seekers are denied access to humanitarian protection created by Congress [15]. 

Among migrants, those who are unaccompanied minors are suffering the most under the Trump administration’s violation of federal law aimed at protecting this group. While the Trump administration is justifying the above described practices using a 1944 law that grants the president broad power to block foreigners from entering the country in order to prevent the “serious threat” of a dangerous disease [16], U.S. immigration law dictates that once in the U.S., unaccompanied migrant minors cannot be deported through a fast-track system now employed by the Trump administration. Instead, they must be placed in the “least restrictive” shelters and facilities [17]. The 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement underlines this and furthermore states that the government must make a continuing effort to release unaccompanied minors to qualified sponsors [18]. Moreover, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act also affords certain standards of treatment to foreign children who arrive at the American border without an adult guardian [19]. The Trump administration has blatantly violated all of these laws. Gerson, a 10-year old Honduran boy, is one of the many children put on a deportation flight back to his home country, leaving his mother behind at a migrant camp at the U.S.-Mexico border. While Gerson intended to be reunited with immediate family in Texas, the Trump administration refused to make any effort to do so despite its legal obligations. His case is only one example of hundreds of unaccompanied minors who have suffered from the Trump administration’s use of the pandemic to push for illegal, inhumane immigration practices that violate basic human rights. 

Moving forward

The coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. has revealed the tip of the iceberg of a community that has long been disenfranchised, suffering from disadvantageous government policy. The data does not lie. Latinx are among the hardest hit groups by the virus in the U.S. Unfortunately, while individual states carry significant amounts of responsibility, only changes from within the Trump administration could bring real solutions to the many issues highlighted in this article. Supplying appropriate PPE to farmworkers, for example, should go without saying. The solution to bigger, more systemic issues, such as equal protection under the CARES act for DACA and TPS recipients, is also found from within the White House. It is time that the U.S. moves towards thinking about health as a public good, one that must be available to everyone. Only in this way can the country ensure economic sustainability in the long-run. But, to achieve this, the U.S will need a different administration to make serious and concrete changes, one that does not deliberately exclude minority groups in its policy-making, one that acknowledges their humanity and one that cannot claim to have won the election by referring to those bringing the country through the pandemic as drug criminals. 

Maria is a second year International Relations Student at King’s College, the Broadcast Editor for International Relations Today and the Editor in Chief of El Cortao.

Sebastian is a second year International Relations Student at King’s College London and staff writer for International Relations Today: Perspectives.

Bibliography

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-california-black-latinos.html

[2]https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html

[3] https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/hispanics-and-latinos-in-industries-and-occupations.htm

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-california-black-latinos.html 

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html

[6] https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/coronavirus-and-farmworkers-food-supply-risk

[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html

[8] https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1

[9] https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/pdf/2015-05-vitalsigns.pdf

[10] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/RHI725218

[11] https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares

[12] https://luskin.ucla.edu/residents-in-l-a-s-latino-neighborhoods-less-likely-to-receive-relief-funds

[13] https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/30/coronavirus-crisis-hastens-undocumented-immigrants-sent-back-mexico/ 

[14] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-immigration-migrant-children-protections-border/

[15] Ibid.

[16] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/coronavirus-migrant-children-unaccompanied-minors.h

[17]https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-immigration-migrant-children-protections-border/

[18] Ibid. 

[19] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/coronavirus-migrant-children-unaccompanied-minors.html?fbclid=IwAR3k-1H6DLMEWlqYU1UqeSs3uS4BE18Xv5biACPHCbKdWMDvZCqzQyxqa4M