FACT BRIEF

Are immigrants living in the U.S. illegally at greater risk from the coronavirus?

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

By Allegra Taylor

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YES

Immigrants living in the U.S. illegally are at greater risk of exposure to the coronavirus than the general population, largely due to social and economic determinants.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, most of the 11.3 million without legal status hold "essential" jobs in construction, lodging and food services, management services or manufacturing. The group notes that non-citizens face restricted access to government relief programs, making in-person work more difficult to forego.

Family members living in close proximity are also at greater risk of exposure to the virus. A 2018 Pew Research analysis shows most immigrants lacking legal permission to be in the U.S. live with members of their family. PolicyMap data identifies a correlation between regions where more than 10% of households are intergenerational and regions with higher severe COVID-19 risk.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

National Library of Medicine: Disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant communities

Migration Policy Institute: Unauthorized immigrant population

National Conference of State Legislatures: Essential workers

Migration Policy Institute: Disproportionately vulnerable to COVID-19

PolicyMap: The risk of COVID-19 spread in multigenerational households

Pew Research: Most unauthorized immigrants live with family

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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.