NEW YORK, CMC – New York Attorney General Letitia James leads is leading a multi-state coalition calling for expanded access to work authorization for new Caribbean immigrants
James is leading a coalition of 19 attorneys general calling on the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expedite and expand access to work authorization for newly arrived Caribbean and other immigrants, especially asylum-seekers and migrants.
Many of the asylum seekers arriving in New York from the southern border of the United States are nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the coalition commends the department’s efforts in September to remove barriers to securing work authorization. It requests additional action to protect new immigrants and make it easier for them to support their families by securing stable jobs.
“New immigrants, so many of whom fled horrific circumstances in pursuit of a better life in America, deserve an opportunity to find good-paying, stable jobs,” James told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“It is unconscionable that after all the suffering they’ve endured on their journey, they encounter bureaucratic roadblocks preventing them from pursuing the American dream.
“Asylum-seekers and migrants are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and I thank my fellow attorneys general for joining this effort to ensure they are treated with dignity,” she added.
While many new immigrants, including those seeking asylum status, are eager to find employment to provide for themselves and their families, James said that, without work authorization, they have been forced to rely on state and local safety net programs for food and shelter.
The coalition of attorneys general notes in their letter that the arduous process of obtaining work authorization leaves many immigrant families without stable housing and forces some to seek work in the underground economy, “where they are targets for exploitation.”
The New York Attorney General said current work authorization applications often require expensive fees or complex fee waiver requirements, preventing many immigrants from even applying for the permit.
She said backlogs in approving work authorization permits have led to months-long wait times for approval.
“Migrants from regions such as Haiti have been disproportionately impacted, with their humanitarian parole status expiring before their work authorization is granted,” James said, adding, “Such structural barriers prevent these vulnerable populations from becoming self-sufficient and building stable lives in America.”
She said the coalition fully supports DHS’ previous measures to improve access to work authorization, which included speeding up application processing and increasing the time that work authorization permits are valid.
However, James said the coalition’s letter notes that additional measures are needed to eliminate new immigrants’ barriers to finding stable jobs to support themselves.
She said the coalition recommends DHS take four additional steps to expedite access to work authorization, namely grant provisional work authorization to allow eligible parolees and asylum-seekers to work while their complete application for work authorization is pending; eliminate application fees for those granted humanitarian parole and enable applications with a fee waiver to be submitted online and re-parole those awaiting work authorization to prevent the expiration of their parole status while attempting to obtain employment.
The coalition also wants to streamline the application processes to make it easier for immigrants to apply for work authorization and for DHS to process applications.
For example, the New York Attorney General said the coalition recommends simplifying and translating the work authorization application form into multiple languages to make it more accessible for applicants.
This action is the latest example of Attorney General James fighting for the Caribbean and other immigrant communities.
In August, she stopped a fraudulent immigrant assistance provider that was misleading and intimidating immigrants in Westchester County in New York State and New York City.
Also in August, Attorney General James joined a coalition of attorneys calling on DHS to expedite immigrant work authorization.
In March, James co-led a coalition of 22 attorneys general to push back against the ongoing effort by Texas to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
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