A Long Island resident says she has been denied a stimulus check because she's married to an undocumented immigrant.
Sara and Julio Vasquez have three children and were expected a $2,700 stimulus check. The two are legally married, but Julio is undocumented.
A provision in the CARES Act requires both adults to have a Social Security number for a stimulus check to be issued to a family.
Immigrant rights groups are suing the U.S. government, saying the provision in the law is discriminatory against legal citizens who are entitled to the money.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund says more than a million legal American Citizens may be affected adding, "In the United States, a nation of and by immigrants, this unconstitutional exclusion is especially inexplicable."
Sara Vasquez says she's working seven days a week in the food service industry and can't understand why her family is being excluded.
"The president says, 'I'm about the American citizen' ... but I am an American citizen, I am paying my taxes and I file my taxes the proper way with my husband, we claim jointly we don't claim separate, so I get a bigger refund," says Sara Vasquez. "I do everything that I am supposed to do the right way, and now I am being penalized for it just because of who I fell in love with."
To make matters worse, the pandemic has also halted her husband's naturalization hearings, so he is unable to get a green card.