To decrease the number of migrants in the city’s care, City Hall is taking a more aggressive approach at getting newly arrived asylum seekers on the path toward working.

On Wednesday, officials announced a three week “sprint” toward identifying asylum seekers who are already eligible for work authorization.

“There are two pathways toward work authorization. For a majority of asylum seekers that we are seeing, they can only apply for work authorization 150-days after the federal government has received their asylum application,” Masha Gindler, Executive Director of the Asylum Application Help Center, said. “For a minority of asylum seekers that have been given humanitarian parole or TPS, so Temporary Protected Status, those folks can apply right away.”

What You Need To Know

  • New "three week survey" will aim to reach a total of 40,000 migrants age 18 years and older

  • City officials said the majority of migrants in the city have to wait the 180 day minimum to be eligible for work authorization

  • The survey aims to get migrants out of shelter and to drive down costs associated with housing and feeding thousands of asylum seekers

  • More than 113,000 migrants have arrived, with nearly 60,000 in the city's care

City officials say they have reached about 10,000 migrants so far and are looking to reach a total of 40,000 adults, age 18 and over through a survey. The new effort comes as the city is struggling financially because of the continued influx of asylum seekers. Last weekend, Mayor Adams announced a potential 15% budget crunch to offset the growing cost to house, feed and help nearly 60,000 migrants in the city’s shelters.

“We knew that this situation would start to impact every part of this city,” Anne-Williams-Isom, Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Resources, said. “This is because one municipality and a couple of others across the country has been asked to handle a disproportionate share of what is clearly a national issue.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul again floated the idea of state level work permits for migrants.

She stopped short of saying she would call a special session to do it, but said if she calls legislators to Albany, it would be with a clear objective.

“We have to look at what a session would do. What would not a session do? Do we keep funding, do we take on more responsibility for the case management and asylum processing which we are doing,” Hochul said at an unrelated event on Wednesday.

However, legal experts are doubtful the state level work permits will pass a legal challenge. The idea is premised on the potential of state agencies and departments employing undocumented immigrants, not private employers. 

“So you know, give it a shot, but then it would only apply to state agencies. That would apply to SUNY University,” said Allan Wernick, Senior Legal Advisor at CUNY’s Citizenship Now, a free legal program.

Wernick said that even if state lawmakers were to pass such a law, it would most likely get challenged in court.

“The courts would get involved before they could even get the apparatus in place to issue the documents,” added Wernick.

Instead, legal experts say the city should focus on getting migrants the legal resources to apply for asylum. Dozens of federal staffers are expected to arrive in the city soon to help with that task.

On average, an asylum application can take anywhere from two to four hours to complete. City officials say they helped more than 3,800 migrants apply for asylum as of this week.