Two nonprofit groups in Arizona have sued the city of Phoenix in the federal court for not including some immigrants in the recent COVID-19 relief aid.

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The coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately impacting most of the immigrants in the country. Many of them are still out of job and only depend on the unemployment payment. But there are many as well, who did not receive the aid due to their immigration status. 

Phoenix has received an amount of $300 million as part of the Coronavirus Relief Fund under the CARES Act that was signed by President Donald Trump to help Americans in their financial crisis amid the global pandemic. 

In a recently published article, two Arizona nonprofit groups sued Phoenix for excluding some immigrants from the city's rental and mortgage assistance. The Phoenix City Council has allocated $25 million to the rental, mortgage, and utility assistance. 

The William E. Morris Institute for Justice and the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest filed the case in the federal court in mid-July. They alleged that the city illegally excluded some immigrants from the assistance program. 

William E. Morris Institute for Justice Director Ellen Katz said the funds are intended to keep people in their homes for health and safety reasons. She also believed that it will benefit everyone when people stay in their homes. 

The nonprofit groups alleged that Phoenix used the 1996 federal law to define the immigrants, who will qualify for the assistance program. This law excludes people with Temporary Protected Status, asylum applicants, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA recipients. 

In the lawsuit, the groups claimed that the Coronavirus Relief Aid is not subject to restriction based on immigration status. This means that immigrants, regardless of their status, must receive housing rental and mortgage assistance. 

They argued that the recipients of the CARES Act must be exempted from the 1996 federal law because they are "short-term, non-cash, in-kind emergency disaster relief." Katz added that the "funds fit squarely within that exception." 

Katz asserted that the city gives the housing assistance relief fund directly to the landlords, mortgage companies, and utility companies and the city did not give it directly to the renters and homeowners, thus, making it "non-cash" and "in-kind."

The two groups said the city is violating the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits states from preempting federal laws.

Aside from the direct $1,200 payment and $600 unemployment benefit, the CARES Act has also included other programs to provide fast and direct economic assistance for Americans. 

It is the best interest of the first relief package to help Americans negatively and heavily impacted by the global pandemic. But in Phoenix, only the court can decide now if all immigrants would be eligible in the city's COVID-19 relief funds.

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