By Nicole Trinkl
Staff Writer
As New York City shelters continue to grapple with the influx of migrants, the Biden Administration announced that it would provide nearly half a million Venezuelan migrants temporary protected status, granting them the ability to legally work and live in the United States.
According to The New York Times, this mandate would allow about 472,000 Venezuelan migrants who arrived in the United States before July 31 the ability to work legally for 18 months while they wait to receive employment authorizations. By doing this, Venezuelan asylum seekers will be temporarily protected from removal and have the ability to work.
Biden's announcement comes after New York City Mayor Eric Adams intensely advocated for Congress and the Biden administration to take action in helping the city deal with the exceeding numbers of migrants entering the city shelter systems since the beginning of the crisis when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started bussing migrants to New York.
According to Reuters, Abbott first announced that he would be sending buses carrying migrants to New York City in Aug. 2022. The overwhelming responsibility Texas has had to solely deal with the increasing numbers of migrants crossing the border may be what pushed Abbott to send these migrant-filled buses to different, mainly Democratic, sanctuary cities.
According to AP, as of Sept. 23, more than 116,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022. Sixty thousand migrants are currently in New York City, one-fourth being from Venezuela.
According to The New York Times, asylum seekers, under federal law, have to wait about six months after they file for asylum before they are able to apply for work authorization. As a result, migrants have had to wait a very long time to start working. Many migrants have had to rely on the city for support, which has strained the city’s resources and shelter systems. Some migrants have even illegally entered the workforce without work authorization.
At a town hall meeting on the Upper West Side prior to Biden’s announcement, Adams expressed his concerns on the lack of federal support New York City is getting to deal with this crisis, detailing that approximately 10,000 migrants a month have come into the city, which is estimated to cost the city around $12 billion.
“We're getting no support on this national crisis” Adams said. “Every community in this city is going to be impacted. We got a 12 billion dollar deficit that we're going to have to cut. Every service in this city is going to be impacted.”
Adams has long advocated for asylum seekers to get work authorizations. Just last month, on Aug. 31, Adams and Labor leaders rallied together to call on the Biden Administration, Congress, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help and grant work authorizations to asylum seekers.
“We must ensure our newest Americans can work lawfully and build stable lives,” Adams said. “We must grant expedited work authorization. We must make sure that we extend temporary protective status for Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, South Sudan, Cameroon and other nations. Let them work. Let them work. Let them work,” the crowd chanted.
According to the New York State official website, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has also long advocated for granting migrants work authorizations, announced on Sept. 25 that New York State would deploy an additional 150 New York National Guard members to help assist the city with responding to the ongoing migrant crisis. There are currently 1,900 National Guard personnel in New York providing support to asylum seekers statewide across 51 hotels and two New York City Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers. More will be assigned in the future to assist in case management as well.
Hochul has also directed other state resources in helping Venezuelan and other asylum seekers fill out the needed paperwork to be able to receive legal work status. More than 50 DHS personnel are currently helping process work authorization paperwork.
Abbott visited New York City on Sep. 27 and gave a speech at the Manhattan Institute in which he addressed his thoughts on the national migrant crisis affecting both Texas and New York City. Abbott did make clear, in his remarks, that Texas is not solely responsible for the influx of migrants in the city of New York.
“Texas has bused 15,800 [migrants] to New York. … The lead importer of migrants to New York [is] not Texas, it's Joe Biden,” Abbott said. “We've sent about 10 percent of the migrants that you have [in New York].”
As the Biden Administration starts to grant Venezuelan asylum seekers temporary protected status, it is unclear if more migrants will continue to enter the U.S.
