In the early months of the Covid-19 emergency, Congress took rapid steps to widen the social safety net by increasing weekly unemployment payments, expanding program eligibility to include self-employed workers, and issuing multiple stimulus checks. But those without work authorization, such as undocumented immigrants, were ineligible for many of these benefits. In New York, immigrant rights advocates called on lawmakers in Albany to set aside dedicated funding for such residents. Those efforts, including a weeks-long hunger strike that began almost exactly one year ago, led to the passage of a historic $2.1 billion Excluded Worker Fund last April.