New York City officials are offering conflicting counts on the number of Venezuelan migrants eligible for work permits, renewing questions about how the city is processing and surveying the more than 60,000 migrants currently in its shelter system.
During a briefing at City Hall on Wednesday, administration officials said 22,000 Venezuelan migrants in the city’s shelter system would be covered under temporary protection status, a designation announced by President Joe Biden last week that would offer them the opportunity to stay and work in the country legally. But that number was more than twice the figure Mayor Eric Adams gave reporters last week, when he said roughly 9,500 Venezuelan migrants in the city’s shelter system would be affected.
It was the third revised Venezuelan migrant count city officials have provided within the span of a week. Since the start of the crisis, City Hall has faced questions surrounding its counting of migrants and why it has not released more detailed reporting to the public.
That scrutiny has intensified in recent weeks as state and federal officials have raised concerns about the city’s data collection and efforts to provide migrants with legal services so that they may apply for asylum before their one-year deadline passes.
The city’s ability to accurately count and process migrants is critical to helping them apply for legal status so that they may eventually exit the shelter system.
Following Wednesday’s briefing, Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for the mayor, said Dr. Ted Long, a senior official with the city’s public hospitals who cited the 22,000 figure, had misspoken.
She said Long was counting the total number of Venezuelans in the city’s care, not the number who have arrived since July 31, 2023, and would be eligible to apply immediately for work permits.
Long is spearheading an effort to capture an accurate census of migrants, something advocates have long asked City Hall to provide.
Mamelak insisted that the…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply