Unemployment Insurance (UI)—ordinarily an unimposing social policy—emerges in times of crisis as the boogeyman of financial dependence. Yet the program has become a foundational benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a vital safety net for crises to come. It is therefore imperative that UI broaden its reach to all who face the economic precarity of unemployment. To that end, this Note advocates for the creation of a state UI fund capable of servicing workers without documentation and provides the legal framework to do so. It first reflects on the eligibility boundaries of relief programs and the history of exclusionary benefit regimes. It then examines UI’s legal and financial mechanics, looking backward at the program’s formation, and forward toward the consequences of California’s insolvency crisis. This analysis exposes UI’s greatest limitations, all products of its technical design.

As its core contribution, this Note charts the course for an inclusive income replacement scheme with the reinforcement to withstand both privacy and preemption implications. The proposal designates a percentage of income taxes toward a separate revenue pool that operates entirely independent of, but mechanically comparable to, the existing infrastructure. To prevent the fund from transforming into a registry, the proposal contemplates a secure means of data-sharing, insulated from nefarious inquiries and probes. The Note analyzes sanctuary laws through the lens of federal preemption to propose new state policy that can further protect immigration data. It also explores litigation channels by applying the Tenth Amendment’s anti-commandeering doctrine to existing federal immigration law. After making the case for legal viability, this Note concludes by emphasizing the growing political appetite for such a proposal, as demonstrated by New York’s Excluded Workers Fund.

Continue reading Toward an Inclusive Unemployment Insurance Fund: Reimagining Income Replacement in California