Some Nebraska residents remain without unemployment benefits. It’s partly because of federal influence

When Joseline Reyna wakes up in Grand Island, she almost always checks the news. That’s where she’ll find out if there have been any changes to her ability to live and work in the U.S.

Reyna is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). She came to Nebraska from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico when she was a child. She doesn’t have many memories of her time in the country south of the U.S. border, so she identifies as a proud Nebraskan.

“Now I feel like I brag about that,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m from Nebraska.’”

People like Reyna have the authorization to work in the U.S. She and others like her went through complex processes and repeat them almost every year to continue to have the right to work in the country.

Some DACA recipients, people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), asylees and those with other immigration statuses can receive work authorization without becoming U.S. citizens. They pay taxes, they pay into Social Security and their employers pay into unemployment on their behalf as workers.

But in Nebraska, Reyna and other work-authorized residents cannot receive unemployment benefits, even if they are let go through no fault of their own.

As an active member in her community, Reyna would often hear from other work-authorized residents asking about unemployment benefits, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was hard telling someone like, their co-workers are all getting this money for unemployment…but they don’t qualify for that,” she said.

That’s one reason why state lawmakers and immigrant advocates have been working on a bill that would allow them to receive that benefit. LB299, which would have allowed work-authorized immigrants to receive unemployment benefits, had been introduced before. But this year, it got farther than ever. It was passed out of committee, with one present not voting, and was headed for floor debate.

That is until co-sponsor of the bill, Sen. Margo Juarez, was pulled off the rotunda one day.

Juarez said the Department of Labor told her to back down after President Donald Trump released an executive order within 24 hours of the bill’s introduction. The order, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders” said the Trump administration will “uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources.”

“We were threatened that federal funds would be pulled that support unemployment,” Juarez said. “I had no idea that this was going to be heading our way. So it really did stop me, that's for sure.”

A Department of Labor spokesperson said the department did not receive any communication, nor did the Governor’s office, from the U.S. Department of Labor concerning the issuance of the executive order. Further, the spokesperson said the department was not involved in any conversation with Sen. Juarez in the Rotunda.

"She and Sen. Ibach did have a conversation in the Rotunda with members of the governor's Policy and Research team," the spokesperson said in an email.

“I was surprised that, you know, you think we're little ol’ Nebraska here in the middle of the country, you know? And how the eyes at the federal level had watched us and stopped us,” Juarez said.

Although Juarez is new to the state legislature, she said it seems unusual that a president would influence changes in a state government.

Nick Grandgenett, a staff attorney with Nebraska Appleseed’s Immigrants & Communities Program, described the federal government as using a “strong arm tactic.”

“You’re not necessarily wanting to debate the merits of the bill or flag technical considerations. It’s more like if this moves forward, then we’re going to start to withhold money,” he said. “I think that’s part of what alarmed us.” (two prior session, state shares with federal. Technical concerns from feds, sorted out with committee amendment)

It was devastating news to Zayra Navarrete in Hastings. She has been a DACA recipient for 12 years. LB299 brought back memories of when she was worried about losing her job during the COVID-19 shutdown.

“It kind of gave those feelings back to me, like, one day I might need this, you know? Or like that scared little girl that I was back in 2020 when I didn't know if I was going to get that option, when I didn't know what financial resources were going to be there for me,” she recalled.

Navarrete came to the U.S. when she was 2. She has no memory of Mexico, where she was born, and considers Nebraska her home. She hopes to one day visit the country, but DACA recipients cannot travel freely internationally. She said it’s frustrating that people like her and Reyna still cannot receive unemployment benefits like their coworkers.

“Nebraska is the good life. It’s a good place to live. So why aren’t we making it that way for everybody?” Navarrette asked.

Unlike Navarrette, Reyna received special permission after 18 years to travel to Mexico once with two of her siblings, who are U.S. citizens. But unfortunately, she could not travel back for family members’ funerals. DACA recipients can only travel outside of the country with a special permission called Advanced Parole.

Navarrette said she doesn’t hold anything against Sen. Juarez for setting the bill aside, especially since it received federal attention. She described Nebraska as being in “the eye of the storm.”

“Everything just happened so fast that I was like, we had all this favor,” she said. “And then all of a sudden they’re shutting it down.”

Navarrette was going to join a group of other DACA recipients and advocates this month to thank state legislators for their support of the bill. Unfortunately she was sick that day, but others still went to the state Capitol to show their appreciation.

“I got out of DACA, but you will never take the DACA out of me,” said one DACA recipient as she walked the halls of the Capitol building.

According to a September 2023 report from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Nebraska has about 2,460 DACA recipients. It lands the state around the middle of the list that counts active DACA recipients, which includes U.S. territories and the Armed Forces.

USCIS reports Nebraska has about 2,161 TPS beneficiaries.

Grandgenett argued it doesn’t really cost the Nebraska taxpayer anything to allow people with these statuses to earn unemployment, because the funds are drawn from the Nebraska State Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund as opposed to the general fund. That trust fund is solely supported by a special tax on employers.

He clarified that unemployment benefits are not like other welfare benefits including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

“The distinction to make is that they’re not federal means-tested benefits in the same way like SNAP, TANF and Medicaid are,” Grandgenett said.

According to the Public Benefit Annual Report 2024 from the Nebraska Department of Labor, 3,083 non-U.S. citizens applied for unemployment benefits and 33 were denied. That’s compared to 10,809 in 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 316 denials.

Natasha Naseem works as an attorney with the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement. She said that although some people may argue that’s a small number, that doesn’t mean the individuals who are denied based on immigration status don’t matter.

“Just because the pandemic itself is over doesn’t mean that we, looking forward, might not run into periods of layoffs and people losing jobs through no fault of their own,” Naseem said. “We’re stuck where we are right now, which is that people are not going to be able to access benefits that they have earned.”

As for Navarrette and Reyna, they are not taking the bill ending as a complete loss. They plan to continue advocating for work-authorized residents to receive earned unemployment benefits.

“People sometimes, they’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get into politics,’” Reyna said. “But when it personally affects your life, you got to keep up with everything that’s going on.”

If she would need unemployment benefits, at the moment, Reyna could not receive them. There is currently no direct pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, so they cannot apply for it unless they have other circumstances to consider, like marrying a U.S. citizen. She feels lucky she has a small business to depend on. But Navarrette said she isn’t as lucky.

“I really think I’m living on the edge,” she said. “If I ever were to need those funds, I am forced to think about taking out loans, putting myself in debt, and it just causes me a lot of stress.”

Navarrette plans to testify in support if a similar bill ever comes through the legislature again, but Sen. Juarez is hesitant.

“We're going to continue to advocate for this bill, but obviously we're just going to have to wait and see what the temperament is like at the federal level, and if there's any changes. I mean, I'm hoping that we're not going to have to wait until the next president, but that could be the reality,” she said.

Juarez wants people like Navarette and Reyna to know she hears them and encourages them to continue advocating for functional immigration reform.

“At the end of the day, I love Nebraska,” Reyna added. “But I feel like it has been hard living in a place like this…because sometimes you’re like, dang. They don’t want me here.”