Federal Queens pols urge Biden to expedite migrant work authorization
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As New York expects an influx of asylum seekers with the ending of Title 42, federal officials asked President Joe Biden for help getting them work. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By Ryan Schwach
With fears that the asylum seeker crisis in New York City may worsen with the ending of Title 42, a majority of the city’s congressional representatives signed a joint letter addressed to President Joe Biden looking for his help in allowing the migrants to work.
Eleven House representatives, including Queens representatives Greg Meeks, Nydia Velazquez, Grace Meng and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, signed a letter that asks Biden to increase the use of parole and eliminate the 150-day wait period for asylum seekers to apply for work authorization.
“Asylum seekers should be permitted to obtain work authorization from the moment they file their asylum claim,” the representatives wrote.
The letter comes a day after the COVID-era immigration restriction, Title 42, expired. Title 42 was put in place by former President Donald Trump in an effort limit the amount of asylum-seekers looking to enter the U.S as COVID struck. With Title 42 no longer in effect, many officials anticipate a large influx of migrants to America’s Southern border. There, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has already said he would continue bus migrants to Democratic led cities like New York. In the last year, over 50,000 asylum-seekers have made their way to New York City, which has introduced a crisis for Mayor Eric Adams and other officials, who have struggled to find temporary shelter and resources for the migrants.
“Despite calling on the federal government for a national decompression strategy since last year, and for a decompression strategy across the state, New York City has been left without the necessary support to manage this crisis,” Adams said last week. “With a vacuum of leadership, we are now being forced to undertake our own decompression strategy.”
On Wednesday, Adams made a slew of controversial decisions, including issuing an executive order rolling back the city’s Right to Shelter requirements. The order has been criticized by housing and migrant groups, as well as a number of lawmakers in the City Council.
“This is not a decision taken lightly and we will make every effort to get asylum seekers into shelter as quickly as possible as we have done since day one,” City Hall Spokesman Fabian Levy said in a statement to Gothamist.
The letter from the federal representatives asks Biden to expedite the work authorization process so migrants can get jobs sooner and provide for themselves and their families faster, and lessen the burden on the government and community groups.
Currently, migrants have to wait 150-days after submitting asylum applications to apply for work authorization, and also have to wait at least an additional 30 days to actually receive the documents.
“Since asylum seekers usually are unable to immediately file for asylum upon entry, the six-month waiting period is overly burdensome,” the lawmakers said. “As a result, asylum seekers are forced to rely on underfunded community groups to provide them with everything from housing to food to health services. This is particularly troubling given the labor shortages we are experiencing across the country.”
The call to help asylum-seekers get to work is one that has already rung for nearly a month from city officials and Queens representatives.
On April 19, Mayor Adams made the same call to Biden.
“To deny people the ability to work legally sets them up for failure,” he said. “The actions we’re urging our federal partners to do, all of which can be done without support from the Republican leaders in Congress who refuse to do their jobs, will ensure that asylum seekers in New York City, and across the country, can do what they came here to do — work lawfully and build stable lives.”
In the World’s Borough, where a large portion of migrants have wound up, electeds have seconded that argument.
“People didn't come here to hang out – people came here to support their families back home, or just for a brighter future and opportunities for their children for themselves,” Councilmember Julie Won told the Eagle in April.
Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar was alongside Adams when he made the case in April.
“These immigrants are eager to work and to have the financial security, sense of purpose, and ticket to the American Dream that a job provides,” she said. “Providing them with work authorization is a win-win as it will also lead to a new pool of talent boosting our economy. Indeed, just a ten percent increase in asylum seeker resettlement grows the economy by over $8.9 billion and adds more than $1.5 billion to government coffers.”
“Our city needs the federal government to step in, help the people of New York, and provide these asylum seekers with a pathway to work authorization,” she added.
In addition to her comments in the letter last week, Meng joined the mayor and Rajkumar in their call for expedited work authorization in April.
“We must continue working to strengthen New York City's ability to help incoming immigrants and asylum seekers obtain work authorization,” she said at the time.
In addition to the requested assistance from the lawmakers, Governor Kathy Hochul also addressed a letter to the President on Friday asking for assistance in providing shelter for the migrants.
“In anticipation of several thousand asylum seekers arriving in New York City every week, I am submitting this request for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to direct the Department of Defense and the National Park Service to provide New York State assistance through the immediate construction and operation of temporary shelters on federal lands and property to house individuals seeking political asylum,” Hochul wrote, asking for the use of military installations, like Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn, to be used to shelter migrants.
