Stuck with 110,000 unemployed migrants they invited to New York through their Sanctuary City policy, Democrat officials are looking to create a special system to break a federal log jam in issuing work permits and get them into the job market.
“In the absence of federal action to issue work permits, the state must lead and issue the work permits on its own,” said state Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Queens), an ally of Mayor Eric Adams. “It is time for the state to take ownership over the migrant crisis.”
Adams is struggling to provide room and board for the migrants, a tab he said will hit $12 billion over the next two years. Turning them into productive members of society is a big priority for the Democrats, and getting cheap labor is a key reason why the corporate world supports President Biden’s open border policy.
Critics argue, however, that flooding the workforce with unskilled laborers will suppress the earning potential of current residents, particularly black and Latino workers who make up a large part of the city’s low and middle class.
Other state lawmakers have signed onto the plan, with Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz, also a Queens Democrat, stating, “The federal government’s lack of action, it’s almost embarrassing.”
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Adams has run out of options in trying to handle the migrant surge. His comment that the crisis will “destroy New York City” set off a storm of controversy, but not enough to move Biden to step up and assist. Hochul also turned her back on the mayor, announcing she would not forcibly relocate the migrants to the suburbs, a strategy that led to Adams suing officials from 32 municipalities who took steps to keep him from bringing the immigrants to their communities.
Democrat legislators want Hochul to call a special session in Albany to fast-track the work permits, as well as block the suburban and upstate counties from barring the migrants. The Republicans want a special session to adopt a resolution calling on the federal government to provide financial assistance to the state, and pressure the Biden administration to secure the country’s southern border. They’re also pushing to have the comptroller audit state and federal monies spent on the migrants so far, and require a registry program to assist with background checks.
“There are absolutely no records on these migrants—no vaccine information, criminal background, work history,” noted Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano, a Suffolk Republican. “Yet we usher them into our state by the tens of thousands and expect New Yorkers to pay the bill.”