On Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul met with senior Biden administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, to tackle the flood of asylum seekers that has put a burden on New York City’s resources.
In a 2-hour long meeting held in the West Wing of the White House, the two sides have concurred on a number of steps to assist the Big Apple in managing such an unprecedented migrant crisis. Among the most anticipated measures is a scheme that would assist migrants in being allowed to work while they wait for their immigration cases to be processed.
“It is the only way to help asylum seekers become self-sustaining, so they can move into permanent housing,” Hochul said in a statement. “I am especially pleased that the federal government has agreed to provide personnel, data, and resources to identify the thousands of individuals in New York who are already eligible, but have not yet applied, for work authorization.”
Federal data show that 20% of migrants who said they were headed towards New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania are instantly eligible for work permits, but research suggests that many of them were not aware of the application process or how to obtain a work visa. The Biden administration thus pledged to collaborate with Hochul on a “month of action” in September across the Empire State to better teach migrants about their employment opportunities via email and text in a number of languages in order to reduce that gap.
Assistance from federal agencies to help the health, education, and housing of recent immigrants was also covered during the discussion – as the start of the new school year is now just days away throughout the five boroughs.
Since last spring, New York state has been the destination for an unprecedented influx of 90,000 migrants, and as of July, it still retained custody of close to 55,000 of them. Many of them arrived on buses that Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott had dispatched in an effort to transfer the responsibility for their reception to Democratic strongholds in a political blow to the Biden administration’s border policies. In response, the city has declared a state of emergency.
On Monday, the US Department of Homeland Security had sent Adams and Hochul a pair of letters outlining a list of 11 federally owned sites that may be used to shelter migrants – most of which are located far from Manhattan.
Meanwhile, in response to the use of a former Staten Island Catholic school as a shelter for asylum seekers, local GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis urged the southern borough to secede from the rest of New York City. “I mean, I hear all the jokes all the time that they would love to get rid of Staten Island, well, this is your opportunity,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said on NY1 Wednesday. “I think Staten Island would like to have an opportunity to self-govern.
Massive demonstrations broke out last week in opposition to the city’s choice to turn the abandoned St. John Villa Academy school in the Arrochar neighborhood of the borough into a temporary 300-bed residence for migrants. NYC authorities responded by increasing police presence while hundreds continued to gather outside the old school, which is under City Hall ownership.
Staten Island has traditionally been an outlier among the five boroughs, as it is located on the outskirts of New York City and home to a primarily conservative Republican populace that clashes with the rest of the city. “Our values do not line up with the other boroughs,” Antico said Wednesday. “We do not believe in woke politics. Right is right, and wrong is wrong.”
