UCSC study links immigration status to COVID deaths, survival rate

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION) - A recent report from UC Santa Cruz showed how people's immigration status had an impact on their survival rate during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It’s been years since the pandemic, and we’re still living with COVID-19 as memorials are built for people who died of the virus.

A new study out of UCSC shows a massive disparity in the death rates between undocumented workers and U.S. citizens.

"Just made it really clear how much being undocumented was not just a paperwork issue during the pandemic, it was an issue of life and death," UCSC professor Alicia Riley said.

Riley is an instructor at UCSC who led the study, looking at death certificates in California over eight years to compare the death rates in the years leading up to the pandemic with those between 2020 and 2023.

They found a 55 percent increase in death rate for undocumented immigrants vs a 12 percent increase for U.S. citizens. 

"This was the first study to really link immigration status and make it possible to link legal immigration status to excess death rates," Riley said.

And undocumented essential workers were hit the hardest during the pandemic, experiencing a 91 percent increase in deaths. 

"We're just a powder keg waiting to happen here," said Cesar Lara, Executive Director of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council.

Local labor leaders say they’re not surprised by the numbers, stating that the Central Coast’s agriculture industry and housing problems made the problem worse.

"Social determinants of health, where lower economic workers, who are dominant industry in the tricam area, is agriculture. It means that you have a lot of workers who get paid very little money," said Lara. "We saw more and more people get sick, especially when you have high density in housing. Like we see here on the Central Coast."

Researchers pointed to a lack of access to affordable healthcare as one reason for the difference, and now more pathways to coverage are being lost.

"As of this moment, all low-income Californians are eligible for Medi-Cal coverage, including undocumented Californians. But, unfortunately, we're on the verge of seeing that progress rolled backward due to a combination of federal and state policies," Laurel Lucia of the UC Berkeley Labor Center stated.

DACA recipients are losing their Medi-Cal coverage at the end of the month, and starting next year, new undocumented patients will not be able to enroll in the program.

As immigration enforcement intensifies around the country, experts say the issue only stands to get worse without action.

"We know that the challenges that undocumented individuals faced during the pandemic are still alive today. Low wages, no access to proper health care, and housing costs being so high," Lara said.

"The ones being targeted right now are the same communities who are still reeling with the consequences of these deaths. They're still dealing with bereavement and the mental health consequences of that, or the financial consequences of it," Riley said.

Professor Riley says the findings show the need for undocumented immigrants to be included in the public safety net and disaster response programs, as too many fall through the cracks of our current system.