Trump and the Republicans Are Leaving PA Communities Behind. We’re Voting Him Out.

By Moises Handal Perez

For the past 20 years, I’ve worked as a delivery worker for several different restaurants. It’s hard work — especially when it’s cold or rainy — but it’s always helped pay the bills for me, my wife and our 10 year old son.

When the pandemic hit, my hours were cut dramatically. Even though the restaurant was still open and people could order delivery, I started having fewer shifts and making a lot less money.

Maybe a lot of people started cooking more and eating less takeout. Maybe like me they had less income and needed to save money. All I know is that all of a sudden my family started struggling in ways that we hadn’t before.

When the government started talking about relief for people who had been hit hard by the economic crisis, my wife and I were hopeful.

Companies like the restaurant I work for were eligible for PPP loans that were supposed to help them keep paying people like me.

People who lost their jobs were supposed to be eligible for increased unemployment insurance.

People who had to care for sick family members, or got sick themselves, were supposed to be eligible for paid medical leave.

But that’s what was supposed to happen. The real story for families like mine was much different.

Hundreds of Pennsylvania residents joined a caravan this spring to protest the Trump administration’s failure to respond to the COVID pandemic and provide a Recovery for All.

I’m a citizen. My son is a citizen. But my wife is not. She pays taxes, just like I do, but because of her immigration status, we were excluded from all government relief.

So what happened? Why weren’t families like mine — and millions of other excluded workers around the country — helped by all these programs?

Put simply — the Republicans in Washington. Trump and Republicans in Congress decided to exclude us from all the relief programs. Instead of getting the help we needed to stay afloat, we were left out and abandoned. And now they’ve refused to advance any further relief, many months after the first Covid response bills left us in the cold.

Well now we’ve got a chance to let Trump and the rest of those Republicans know what we think of their decision. Election Day is on November 3rd — many of our neighbors have already voted by mail or early. I’ll be joining them, because our community needs a true recovery for all — one that includes mixed status families like mine — and the party in power has failed to deliver it at every turn.

Moises Handal Perez is a member of Make the Road Action in PA and a Philadelphia resident. On Twitter: @MakeRoadActPA.

Make the Road Action in PA builds political power rooted in immigrant communities and working-class communities of color, promotes policy solutions that improve the lives of everyone, and strengthens the movement for justice through electoral and grassroots organizing to advance progressive political and policy change. The organization is contacting more than 1.3 million PA voters in advance of the Nov. 3 election.