Migrant Surge Sparks Tension Between New York’s Democratic Mayor and Biden Administration
The Biden administration opposes a temporary solution that the state and city have proposed, which is escalating tensions between the mayor’s office in New York City and the state and federal governments over how to handle the city’s current influx of more than 58,000 asylum seekers.
Because all hotels and shelters are full and new shelters made from converted churches and schools are starting to fill up, many migrants—some of whom southern Republican governors shipped to New York—have been sleeping on the streets.
This week, protests were held in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens against the new shelters for migrants.
Democrat Mayor Eric Adams has repeatedly blamed the Biden administration for not providing the city with more resources to house the migrants and expedite their work authorization applications.
“We’ve been saying it since last year: We need the federal government to allow asylum seekers to work so they can provide for themselves and their families,” he said Thursday.
So why won’t the federal government fast-track work authorization for the tens of thousands of asylum seekers in New York City’s shelter system?
Two senior Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News that the administration’s hands are tied due to a rule requiring asylum seekers to wait 180 days before submitting a work authorization application.
The officials stated that a congressional act would be required to alter the law.
However, the Adams administration has proposed an alternate solution: granting Temporary Protected Status to certain nationalities, such as Venezuelans, allowing them to apply for work permits immediately.
Given the continuing worsening humanitarian crisis in those countries, they are going to pursue the stability that our country has to offer.”
Complexities in Granting Temporary Protected Status to Recent Venezuelan Arrivals
The two Homeland Security officials stated that it is not so simple. The Biden administration previously granted Venezuelans Temporary Protected Status, but only those already in the country before March 20, 2021.
Most Venezuelans living on the streets and in shelters in New York crossed the US-Mexico border recently and are therefore ineligible.
According to a former Homeland Security official, the agency is hesitant to grant Venezuelans and other nationalities Temporary Protected Status unless new crises in their home countries justify making recent arrivals in the United States eligible.
“There is a concern that granting TPS to one nationality will spur others from that country to come here,” said one former Homeland Security official.
“The concern is that word will get out, even through misinformation, and others will think they too can work and live here.”
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Source: abc NEWS
