Giving Compass' Take:

• Mackie Jimbo explains that as restaurants reduce or eliminate food service during the COVID-19 pandemic, the undocumented workers they employ, or used to employ, lack social support.

• How can you support undocumented workers in your community? 

• Learn about supporting immigrant communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Because they can’t access unemployment benefits, 10 percent of the restaurant workforce lacks an essential safety net during the pandemic.
Over three million people applied for unemployment insurance last week, ending a run of historically low numbers and signaling the official start of the Covid-19 era of job losses. The National Restaurant Association predicts that as many as seven million could lose their jobs in the next three months, in that sector alone.

But about 10 percent of that workforce has no such recourse, according to the Pew Research Center: They are undocumented restaurant workers who, lacking citizenship, cannot ask for help.

Restaurant worker advocacy groups have added the creation of relief funds to their agendas, even as they push for long-term changes in protections for undocumented workers.

Undocumented workers cannot receive food assistance, either, which compounds the problems they face.

Read the full article about undocumented restaurant workers by Mackie Jimbo at The Counter.