I have been informing you about the cases of two Salvadorans whose unemployment benefits were suspended because their employment authorization cards have an expiration date of September 9, 2010, even though the validity of those documents was automatically extended until March 9, 2011.
After writing a letter to the deputy director of the Unemployment Insurance Branch of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), one of the Salvadorans has already been contacted and told that his benefits will be reinstated.
I also received a call from the Office of Special Counsel for Unfair Employment Practices Relating to Immigrant Status I received a letter from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which informed me that they will initiate an investigation of the case.
This is good news, as according to an inside EDD source several people have been wrongly denied unemployment benefits.
The newspaper La Opinión wrote an article about what happened in California.
If you or someone you know has been denied unemployment benefits or any other government benefits because your employment authorization card expired, please send me an email with your name and state of residence. This way, we will be able to know how many cases there are to notify the authorities of the error.
