Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an urgent plea to the Biden administration on New York’s migrant crisis, desperately calling for federal help with housing and work authorizations for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers.
She said the state needs billions of dollars in federal aid to help set up shelters and provide other humanitarian assistance. Her plea comes as New York City Mayor Eric Adams proposed three new locations on Long Island to house asylum-seekers.
“The reality is, we've managed thus far without substantive support from Washington and despite the fact that this is a national, indeed an inherently federal issue," Hochul said during an address in Albany. "But New York has shouldered this burden for far too long.”
In her letterto President Joe Biden, she laid out four key steps the federal government should take right away to alleviate the burden: expedite work authorizations, send aid for housing, transportation, education and health care, set up temporary shelters and reimburse the state for National Guard costs.
She said the expedited work authorizations for migrants is especially important so they can resettle quickly in their new communities and alleviate the labor shortage.
“For me, the answer to these two crises — this humanitarian crisis and our workforce crisis — is so crystal clear and common sense," Hochul said. "Let them get the work authorizations. Let them work legally. Let them work.”
In the meantime, the state Labor Department is working on a new program to connect migrants with employers while they wait for work authorization.
In the same address on Thursday, she threw cold water on the notion that she would use executive action to force counties outside New York City to house migrants. She said the 1981 consent decree between the city and Coalition for the Homeless that establishes a right to shelter does not extend past the five boroughs of the city.
"This is an agreement that does not apply to the state's other 57 counties, which is one of the reasons we cannot and will not force other parts of our state to shelter migrants," Hochul said. "Nor are we going to be asking these migrants to move to other parts of the state against their will."
In a court filing this week, the Adams administration had put forth three state-run facilities as possible temporary shelters: the Air National Guard Base in Westhampton Beach, Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood and the site of the now-closed Kings Park Psychiatric Center
