{"id":37391,"date":"2025-02-12T09:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37391"},"modified":"2025-02-12T09:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T15:32:16","slug":"bill-would-extend-unemployment-other-benefits-to-daca-recipients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37391","title":{"rendered":"Bill would extend unemployment, other benefits to DACA recipients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Business and Labor Committee considered a bill Feb. 10 that seeks to provide public benefits to work-authorized immigrants in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Teresa Ibach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB299, introduced by Sumner Sen. Teresa Ibach, would grant access to public employment and retirement benefits \u2014 including unemployment insurance benefits, deferred compensation and educational financial aid \u2014 to all work-eligible Nebraskans regardless of immigration status. The bill also would extend eligible benefits to a qualified employee\u2019s family members and dependents.<\/p>\n

Ibach said Nebraska is the only state in which work-authorized immigrants, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status recipients, cannot access the unemployment benefits they have earned and that their employers have paid for.<\/p>\n

The individuals the bills seek to benefit are not criminals or undocumented immigrants, Ibach said, they are \u201cgood people\u201d who work hard, pay taxes and contribute to society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, as a state, financially benefit from them being here,\u201d she said. \u201cI fully believe the least we can do is treat them equally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in support of the bill on behalf of the Nebraska Alliance for Thriving Communities, Matt Williams said the biggest challenge Nebraska businesses face is workforce. It\u2019s a problem throughout the state, he said, and one that LB299 could help resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last decade, 100% of our state\u2019s population increase has come from immigration,\u201d Williams said. \u201cPositive immigration solutions will create strong Nebraska communities, families and workforce all across our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several DACA recipients also testified in support of the proposal, including Zayra Navarrete. She said work authorization has allowed her to contribute to a pension and life insurance, but without unemployment benefits she would be forced to take out a loan or sell her assets if faced with an unexpected job loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe contribution of DACA recipients in many work fields is substantial, but the care and respect [we receive] is minimal,\u201d Navarrete said.<\/p>\n

Tom Venzor of the Nebraska Catholic Conference also testified in support of the proposal. He said the current prohibition on unemployment benefits for work-authorized immigrants is an injustice for Nebraskans who have worked hard to support their families, contribute to local communities and grow the state economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an opportunity through LB299 to adjust our state\u2019s public policy and provide work-authorized migrants the same benefits their coworkers receive,\u201d Venzor said. \u201cThis legislation makes not only economic sense \u2026 but it also makes moral sense as the just thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Greater Omaha Chamber and Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, Hunter Traynor also testified in favor, calling the proposal a \u201cno nonsense\u201d way to ensure a strong labor force.<\/p>\n

Opposing the bill was interim Commissioner of Labor Katie Thurber. LB299 essentially creates a new definition of \u201celigible alien,\u201d she said, which is broad enough to potentially provide benefits even if an immigrant lost their work authorization.<\/p>\n

Thurber said the department has been advised by the federal government that the bill could jeopardize federal funds if the language causes the state to be out of conformity with federal regulations. The result could be the loss of nearly $400 million in federal unemployment tax credits, she said.<\/p>\n

Thurber also noted that maintaining conformity becomes \u201cparticularly concerning\u201d given current uncertainties surrounding the future of the DACA program.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LB299.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Business and Labor Committee considered a bill Feb. 10 that seeks to provide public benefits to work-authorized immigrants in Nebraska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[283],"class_list":["post-37391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-labor","tag-sen-teresa-ibach"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UpdateBlogPhoto-4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37391"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37395,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37391\/revisions\/37395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}