Migrant job permits not yet working out
A mere 2,100 migrants in the Big Apple’s care have applied for work permits — with not a single one yet to receive federal approval, city officials admitted Wednesday.
City Hall also still has no solid figure for how many of the more than 40,000 adult asylum-seekers it is housing are eligible to legally work here, officials conceded at a City Council hearing.
The revelation frustrated even Mayor Adams’ fellow Democrats on the council.
“This migrant strategy is going nowhere fast: We have to secure the border,” Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) said.
So far, the city’s migrant help center has submitted 444 work applications, and another 1,700 were filed with the help of the feds stationed in lower Manhattan.
No migrant has returned with a federal stamp of approval, officials conceded.
The stunning admission, which came Wednesday during the City Council’s Committee on Immigration hearing, also revealed the city hasn’t prioritized Venezuelans at the migrant center — or even started telling them of the change.
This foot-dragging comes despite the Biden administration’s move last month to clear the way for those from the troubled country to get temporary protective status (TPS).
The state-funded Asylum Application Help Center in Midtown, staffed by 75 people handling paperwork and 20 supervising lawyers, has processed 5,600 applications for asylum since the end of June.
Meanwhile, of the 2,100 work applications processed, only 300 were for Venezuelans, center Executive Director Masha Gindler said.
“We [had] booked through all of October when the TPS was announced, so we could not have additional clients come in because we fully book our appointments as much as possible,” Gindler explained.
Not good enough
“So the first week when we can kind of increase the amount of TPS appointments we are doing would be that first full week in November.”
However, Holden says this isn’t good enough.
“We cannot promote bypassing
standard immigration procedures and extending TPS without ensuring those in need actually utilize the protection,” the council member said. “The migrant crisis demands both serious attention and consistent follow-through.”
The Biden administration extended protections for people fleeing Venezuela experiencing extreme poverty a month ago, as long as they crossed the border before August following calls from Gov. Hochul and Adams, who argued that employment would allow them to move more quickly from the city’s overwhelmed shelter system.
Those applications are expected to be turned around in weeks while people without TPS status have to wait six months to apply after requesting asylum formally.
But City Hall has still yet to even start outreach to those people, with officials still unsure who should be applying for work permits.
“The assessment . . . will give us a lot of the information to see who is eligible and who we are able to call back and schedule appointments at the center,” Gindler testified.
Since the start of the crisis, some 130,600 migrants have come through New York City with an estimated 65,400 still in the city’s care.