As an influx of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants overwhelms New York City, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is looking into an “unprecedented” option to provide the new arrivals with documents that would allow them to legally work in the state.
The proposal, introduced on Tuesday by Assemblymember Catalina Cruz and state Sen. Luis Sepúlveda, both Democrats, would task the state to grant illegal immigrants working papers within 45 days of their applying for asylum.
By comparison, it typically takes at least 180 days for an asylum applicant to receive a work permit from the federal immigration authority. An already backlogged work authorization system further prolongs the wait.
Ms. Hochul also said that her office is working on drafting language for a similar work permit pathway that lawmakers could either debate in a special session or when they return to Albany in January 2024.
“My attorneys are working on [the language] as we speak,” Ms. Hochul said at the press briefing. “I spoke about this at the White House. I said, ‘I may do something at the state level. I may be having to do this.’ So, we’re working on language right now.”
No state has ever tried to work around the federal government to issue its own work permits for foreign nationals, and it is not clear whether New York’s attempt would survive the legal challenge that’s almost certain to come. Ms. Hochul said she acknowledged that.
“This would be unprecedented,” she told the reporters. “And I believe the federal government would believe we have to have their authority to move forward with state work permits. But as I said, we have to let them work.”
The Biden administration appeared not to be so supportive of such an effort.
In a conference call with New York-based media outlets on Tuesday, two unnamed Biden officials didn’t say if they would ask the Empire State to call off its attempt to take matters in its own hands, but made it clear that work permission is a “federal authority.”
“The provision of employment authorization is very clearly a federal authority,” they said. “And so, it is not something that we would encourage states to pursue. If someone was seriously on that, we'll take it as it comes. But our position has been that it is a clear federal authority.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for further comment.
The governor’s comments came after New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the illegal immigrant crisis would “destroy” the city after his demand for the federal government expedite work authorizations for those currently in the city’s care.
Since April 2022, more than 110,000 migrants have come to New York City after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. About 60,000 of them are housed in traditional city-run shelters and newly opened emergency sites. About 20,000 children entered the city’s public school system this fall semester.
“I have to be honest with New Yorkers with what we’re about to experience—a financial tsunami that I don’t think this city has ever experienced,” Mr. Adams said in an interview with PIX11 over the weekend.
“This is not utopia,” he added. “New York City cannot manage 10,000 people a month with no end in sight. That can’t happen, and that is going to undermine this entire city.”
New York City has a “right to shelter” policy, which requires the government to provide shelter to anyone who is in need of a bed, regardless of immigration status. Mr. Adams has blamed the policy for attracting illegal immigrants and, in an attempt to do away with it, filed papers in state court this May to revisit the 1979 case that led to the mandate.
He has also blamed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whose administration, remaining unassisted by Washington, has been offering those apprehended at the border one-way bus tickets to New York as well as other Democrat-led, self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” like Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles.
