As we’ve been seeing for some time now, Democrats in New York have been floundering in their efforts to deal with the army of illegal migrants who keep showing up every week. This is particularly true of Governor Kathy Hochul and Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams. But they recently decided on a plan. When those two put their heads together on a policy question, everyone should get nervous, and this instance was no exception. They decided to ask Washington to suspend the requirement that new arrivals wait six months before applying for a work permit after applying for asylum. The theory is that the faster migrants can get jobs, the sooner they won’t need shelter any longer. But as Nicole Gelinas points out in the New York Post this week, the entire idea is flawed and will arguably make the situation worse rather than better.
The argument is that the sooner migrants can work, the sooner the city can relieve itself of the burden of sheltering 60,000 newcomers.
Therefore, the White House should ask Congress to suspend requirements that migrants wait six months to apply for a work permit, after having applied for asylum.
One flaw in this strategy is the White House cannot control the border now. Is Biden going to do a better job after Congress has created a huge new incentive to come?
I would lightly take exception with one of the premises being put forward here. I disagree with the characterization that “the White House cannot control the border now.” Joe Biden could get control of the border in a couple of days. He just doesn’t want to. Things are going exactly as the Democrats wanted, with an army of illegal and likely untraceable aliens flowing across the country, presumably destined to eventually be given rights and register as Democratic voters.
But the main point being made in that op-ed is spot-on. If your house is infested with flies, you don’t solve the problem by pouring sugar over all of your counters. And the news that New York is offering immediate work permits to newly arriving illegals would spread like wildfire along the border. Migrants will be flocking toward New York in Numbers that Greg Abbott could never match no matter how many buses he has.
The number of things wrong with the “logic” behind this plan goes well beyond the obvious realities being pointed out by Nicole Gelinas. First, there is the timing to consider. Particularly in a massively expensive place like New York City, one does not simply get a job and then go move into an apartment that same evening. Assuming you will not be living off of public resources, you’re going to have to work for quite a while just to come up with a rental deposit and the first month’s rent, all while still feeding yourself and taking care of other expenses. That’s a steep hill to climb for many legal residents.
But those are all simple logistical points. None of this addresses the fundamental wrongness underlying this entire plan. The rules being quoted are in place for traditional asylum seekers who apply to come here and then request asylum status or permanent residency through the normal process. These people came here illegally and the vast majority of them wouldn’t (or at least shouldn’t) qualify for asylum because they migrated for economic reasons. Why should they be getting work permits at all, to say nothing of receiving them on an accelerated basis?
It’s true that unemployment levels are fairly low at the moment, though still not zero. But that doesn’t mean that suddenly flooding the market with as many as 100,000 work permit holders isn’t going to have an impact. We still have legal residents who don’t have a job. There are homeless veterans out there, many of whom would probably dearly like a chance to earn some money. Why are these migrants who chose to violate our laws to come here getting some sort of head-of-the-line privilege?
This entire scheme is maddening and nobody in charge in New York appears to be willing to listen to common sense. You don’t need to be building new shelters for these migrants and handing them work permits. You need to find buses and planes to put them on and ship them back where they came from. But that’s not happening. Democrats tried for years to alter or abolish our immigration laws. But having failed to do so legislatively, they are now simply ignoring those laws and pretending that the responsibility for supporting all of these illegals falls on the shoulders of our actual citizens. It’s not right and it needs to stop.
