Pandemic brings more hardships for Georgia’s unauthorized (illegal) immigrants (aliens)

AJC ^ | 7/23/21 | Lizzie Kane, Lautaro Grinspan

[Libloather]

Her family’s belongings are already packed into boxes and stacked inside the two-bedroom apartment where she lives - for now - with her husband and daughter.

Soon, the 57-year-old Roswell resident said, they could be homeless.

**SNIP**

The woman, who doesn’t speak English fluently, is from Mexico. She requested anonymity because she lacks legal status to be in this country. Since losing her job during the pandemic, she’s gotten financial help from a church and a grant from the Latin American Association of Atlanta (LAA), but the aid hasn’t been nearly enough to cover all the rent her family owes.

**SNIP**

“I haven’t been able to sleep knowing I might get kicked out,” said the Roswell woman, adding that she doesn’t know where her family will go. “This is difficult. It’s the destruction of a family, of a home, and nobody cares.”

**SNIP**

State Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, said he does not believe that any type of federal assistance is warranted.

“The first word is ‘illegal,’” he said. “If they are here without documentation, then they shouldn’t be here.”

**SNIP**

The couple now owes nearly $8,000 in back rent. The woman said she and her husband have gone entire days in the past year without eating. Their 16-year-old daughter, an honors student, has grown increasingly anxious about their living situation.

[packrat35]

Also 25 years and she still can’t speak English.