ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — As more than 115,000 migrants arrived in New York City over the past year after crossing the border from Mexico, Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul begged President Joe Biden for one thing, above all others, to ease the crisis: “Let them work,” both Democrats have said repeatedly in speeches and interviews.
As more than 115,000 migrants arrived in New York City over the past year after crossing the border from Mexico, Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul begged President Joe Biden for one thing, above all others, to ease the crisis: “Let them work,” both Democrats have said repeatedly in speeches and interviews.
Increasingly impatient leaders of Biden’s party in other cities and states hammered the same message over the last month, saying the administration must make it easier for migrants to get work authorization quickly, which would allow them to pay for food and housing.
The Biden administration took one step toward granting that demand Wednesday, extending a temporary legal status to an estimated 472,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. that will make it easier for them to get work permits.
But expediting work permits for other groups might not be easy, either legally or bureaucratically, experts in the process say. Politically, it may be impossible.
It would take an act of Congress to shorten a mandatory, six-month waiting period for work permits for asylum-seekers who cross the border illegally. Such legislation seems unlikely. Biden already faces attacks from Republicans who say he is too soft on immigration, and his administration has pointed to Congress‘ inability to reach agreement on comprehensive changes to the U.S. immigration system as justification for other steps it has taken.
The Homeland Security Department has sent more than 1 million text messages urging migrants to apply for work permits, and on Wednesday the administration said it would aim to lower the application wait time for those that are eligible to 30 days, down from around 90 currently.
Those steps pleased Hochul and Adams, who said late Wednesday that he hoped the administration would also extend Temporary Protected Status to migrants from countries besides Venezuela. That designation is most commonly given to places where there is an armed conflict or natural disaster.
Gilberto Pozo Ortiz, a 45-year-old from Cuba, has been living, at taxpayer expense, in a hotel in upstate New York for the last three months.
