To date, over the past couple of years, an estimated 125,000 illegal migrants have entered New York state, about 40 percent of them Venezuelans and most of them coming to New York City. They came, although legally they should not be eligible to work, and so they therefore immediately became wards of the state.
That poses a financial problem, even in a country that believes it has all the money any country — in fact, any planet — could ever have. As reported here, however, the Biden administration has again utilized a nifty “super power” it discovered: if you don’t like pesky laws, you just ignore them. In this case, Biden (or his wirepullers) has declared the Venezuelan contingent eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and hence entitled to immediate work permits.
So, now those migrants who (in Governess Hochul’s words) “came here through jungles and mountains and rivers and incredible adversity” without work permits, suddenly have them, thus sweetening the pot for the limitless numbers who are still in the pipeline or who have not yet set out.
This is supposed, somehow, to deal with the illegal immigration crisis.
In response to the TPS designation, Ms. Hochul announced yesterday that New York state has 18,000 “private sector” job openings for the Venezuelan newcomers. About half of those jobs are in NYC, with the other half spread across the state. According to Fox News:
About 24% of the job openings are in accommodation and food services with 90 businesses, according to the governor office’s breakdown. Another 21% of the openings are in healthcare and social assistance with 79 businesses. Manufacturing accounts for 10% of the openings with 38 businesses, and administrative support accounts for 8% with 29 businesses.
Since TPS currently applies only to Venezuelans, about 40 percent of the 125,000, this step is (again in Hochul’s words) only “a good start.” As usual, there is So Much More That Needs To Be Done. . . . Gov. Hochul:
I am hopeful and continue to press Washington and Congress to open up those work authorizations to more people because again, the Venezuelans is a good start, but it’s not going to take care of the people who come in from Mauritania, and Congo, and other parts of South America, Central America, West Africa. We have people from Iraq and Afghanistan coming, people from Russia are coming, because everyone’s finding their ways to that southern border.
Apparently, according to Ms. Hochul’s thinking, the way to deal with the crisis is to offer more than just food, clothing, hotel rooms, education, cellphones, videogames, etc: now would-be “asylum seekers” the world over can get jobs! MONEY! That’ll make them stay home, for sure.
In response, House GOP Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said:
Not even 24 hours after conceding that the border crisis is a national security crisis, Governor Kathy Hochul is back to incentivizing illegal immigration, announcing 18,000 jobs for those who entered the United States illegally, including hundreds of jobs across Upstate New York and the North Country. While New Yorkers are demanding border security, Hochul is worsening the crisis with her failed ‘Sanctuary State’ policies. Enough is enough.
Ms. Stefanik is wrong. In Bidenworld, enough is never enough. In fact, even too much is never enough.
For more, see Fox News.