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Unions across the city and state are supporting Governor Kathy Hochul’s push for the Biden administration to expedite work authorizations for asylum seekers.
In order to help the more than 100,000 asylum seekers who have come through New York City over the past year, the governor sent a letter to President Biden demanding that the federal government provide federal aid to offset health-care, housing, transportation and other costs. Hochul also said the federal government must expedite work authorization to allow asylum seekers to find legal employment to allow them to resettle “more quickly.”
“This crisis originated with the federal government, and it must be resolved through the federal government. The borders and decisions about who can work are solely determined by the federal government,” Hochul said during a Thursday press conference. “And since July of 2022 in our first meeting with the President, Mayor [Eric] Adams and I have championed the idea of a federal designation that would allow the individuals already here in New York the ability to work to support themselves and their families.”
By being able to work, Hochul wrote, asylum seekers will be able to “get out of shelters and into jobs.”
The state Department of Labor is working to help asylum seekers find job opportunities as soon as they are granted work permits. Hochul announced two new DOL programs: one that will immediately place asylum seekers in jobs as soon as they’ve received work authorizations, while the other will proactively work with asylum seekers who have not yet received work permits to connect them with potential employers once they do get authorized.
“Not only will the ability to give them employment allow them to get through this crisis, it helps solve another crisis that we are experiencing in every corner of the state. … We have countless unfilled jobs that are begging for someone to just take them. So we need to do something,” Hochul added.
More than 59,000 asylum seekers are currently in the city’s care. Union leaders across the state spoke out in support of Hochul, including the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
“The RWDSU joins Governor Kathy Hochul in calling for federal assistance so we can better support migrant workers arriving here in New York,” Stuart Appelbaum, the union’s president, said in a statement. “United, we are calling for federal work authorization, federal financial assistance and for the use of federal lands and facilities for sheltering migrants who need our help.”
In a joint statement, Mike Hellstrom and Dan Bianco Jr., vice presidents of the Laborers’ International Union of North America’s Eastern Region, which represents more than 40,000 members in the state, said that “Work authorization is paramount to ensure migrants don’t navigate to hazardous territories such as an underground construction economy that preys upon and exploits vulnerable workers like migrants. LIUNA was founded more than a century ago by proud immigrants and we continue to work for fair treatment of immigrant workers in this nation.”
Labor unions joined advocate groups, including the New York Immigration Coalition and Make the Road New York, at a rally last Thursday near Battery Park to demand that asylum seekers be granted work authorizations as soon as possible.
Shirley Aldebol, the executive vice president of 32BJ SEIU, explained that some of the migrants are coming from countries such as Guatemala who have not been granted temporary protected status — which would make them eligible for work permits — “despite having come here to escape many of the same disasters and situations.”
“This would immediately bring millions of people out of the shadows; it would allow them to get work permits,” she said at the rally. “Doing so would significantly reduce the number of vulnerable workers, allow them to work safely and with basic protections under the law, and further increase their contributions to the local and national economics, and reduce inflation by helping address the tight labor market.”
James Rolla, the senior vice president of Partners in Care, which employs thousands of home health aides represented by 1199SEIU, pointed out that the state is facing a growing shortage of home health-care workers, gaps that the asylum seekers could help fill.
“They desperately want to work, and we desperately need workers,” he said during last week’s event.
clewis@thechiefleader.com
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