NEW YORK, CMC – New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have announced more than US$38 million in new state funding to bolster the city’s efforts to provide legal services for Caribbean and other asylum seekers.
Many asylum seekers arriving in New York from the southern border states are nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Guatemala.
The announcement comes on the first day that the federal rule extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelans who entered the country before July 31, 2023, takes effect.
To coincide with the federal rule, Adams said the city would begin assisting eligible Venezuelan asylum seekers to submit their paper applications for TPS and work authorization, in addition to their fee waiver forms at the city’s Asylum Application Help Center, partially funded by state resources.
“Throughout this crisis, New York City has led the nation in answering the call to support arriving asylum seekers, an
“We were proud to lead the call to ‘Let Them Work’ and are grateful that the federal government heard us and has expanded the pathways to work for many of those in the city’s care.
“With the expansion of Temporary Protected Status taking effect today, our teams are already hard at work helping them apply for work authorization, and this investment from the state will bolster those efforts to help thousands of migrants obtain work and eventually move out of the shelter,” he added.
Hochul said, “For more than a year, the State and city have worked side-by-side to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis we’re experiencing.
“After months of coordinated advocacy from New Yorkers, the federal government has made thousands of migrants from Venezuela newly eligible for Temporary Protected Status. Our job is to ensure these individuals complete all the appropriate paperwork to attain work authorization, find a job, and exit taxpayer-funded shelter.”
Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom said in just a few months, the Asylum Seeker Application Help Center has assisted thousands of individuals and families in completing their federal asylum applications and helping them move one step closer to obtaining work authorization and participating in the American Dream.
“Now, with this investment from the State, we can build on that model, stand up satellite sites across the city to serve even more asylum seekers, and help Venezuelans who recently received TPS from the federal government. Thank you to Governor Hochul and her team for this investment and for answering our call for more support on this national crisis.”
“federal and State partners.
Hochul said the US$38 million in State funding announced on Tuesday builds on an existing US$50 million commitment from the State to support legal services and casework for asylum seekers and migrants.
She said this includes US$20 million allocated to local nonprofits serving asylum seekers and migrants, US$20 million to help New York City with a casework surge through NYC Health + Hospitals, and US$10 million for migrant legal services.
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