New York Employers Are Eager to Hire Migrants. They Can’t.

Many Democrats and business leaders favor giving migrants work permits, but pockets of tension and reluctance have created a complex political calculus.

By Jesse McKinley and Luis Ferré-Sadurní of The NY Times. Excerpts:

"Across the state, many large and small employers have expressed an overwhelming willingness to hire recent asylum seekers; migrants are even more eager to work.

But bringing the two sides together is far harder than it might seem.

Migrants are prohibited by federal law from securing work permits until 180 days after an asylum application is filed — a process that has resulted in monthslong backlogs and has frustrated both business and elected leaders"

"Congress has seemed unwilling to change the 180-day requirement; President Biden has not indicated whether he will take other steps, though his options are limited."

"federal elected officials have begged the Biden administration for robust action."

"Those calls have been amplified by the private sector: Late last month, more than 120 business executives, including Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, sent a letter to Mr. Biden urging him to fast-track work permits.

The same sentiment is shared by business leaders in upstate communities in New York, which have seen work forces slowly drained by decades of out-migration, a trend that was often accelerated and exacerbated by the pandemic."

"Other business leaders concurred. Kathy Wylde, the president of Partnership for New York City, the business group that organized the letter to Mr. Biden, said the crisis has “reached a point where it’s not just a humanitarian crisis, but a real threat to the city’s fiscal and economic condition.”

Some were more blunt. “It’s just stupid,” said Heather Briccetti Mulligan, the chief executive officer of the Business Council of New York State. “I mean, we’re paying for them to sit in hotel rooms when they want to work. We have jobs that need people, and we can’t match them up.”"