For months, New York Mayor Eric Adams has asked for work authorizations for migrants. Mayor Adams didn’t meet the President on his recent visit to his city, but Governor Kathy Hochul met Biden who assured her he was working on it.
Recent news just broke that President Biden has granted temporary protective status to Venezuelans. Politico said this protects close to 500,000 Venezulans across the country.
PBS mentioned there were close to 60,000 Venezuelan migrants in New York City. This is close to half of the 100,000 migrants under Mayor Adams.
Governor Hochul said according to CNN:
“I’m grateful the federal government has acted so speedily to grant one of our top priorities: providing Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelan asylum seekers and migrants who have already arrived in this country.”
“There’s more work to do as we address this crisis, but the State of New York is prepared to immediately begin the process of signing people up for work authorization and getting them into jobs so they can become self-sufficient.”
Governor Hochul said in a press release on September 20:
“Individuals who achieve legal work status will be able to exit the shelter system, find work opportunities and get their shot at the American Dream. This announcement from the White House is a critical step, putting these individuals on the path to legal status that comes with work authorization. President Biden has once again delivered for New Yorkers, and we're grateful to Majority Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, Senator Gillibrand, Mayor Adams, Democratic members of the New York Congressional Delegation, and business and labor leaders who supported this effort.”
Another sanctuary city, Chicago, is already welcoming President Biden’s policy according to WTTW.
This doesn’t solve the housing issue for Mayor Adams, but it should help some migrants get to work faster which was one of his main grievances.
Mayor Adams said in a WABC interview:
I want to thank the president, I want to thank his team. We have been speaking about this for several months now meeting with the White House team, several conversations with the White House Chief of Staff. And we were very clear. The unions, the congressional delegation, we all came together and stated that this could be one of the methods used to address this crisis. And we just want to say thanks to president for hearing us and moving this forward. And you know, thank the governor for even adding her voice to it.
Do you think President Biden will grant more migrants Temporary Protective Status?
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