NEW YORK, CMC – New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James leads is main a multi-state coalition calling for expanded entry to work authorization for brand new Caribbean immigrants
James is main a coalition of 19 attorneys basic calling on the US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) to expedite and broaden entry to work authorization for newly arrived Caribbean and different immigrants, particularly asylum-seekers and migrants.
Most of the asylum seekers arriving in New York from the southern border of the US are nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the coalition commends the division’s efforts in September to take away limitations to securing work authorization. It requests extra motion to guard new immigrants and make it simpler for them to assist their households by securing secure jobs.
“New immigrants, so lots of whom fled horrific circumstances in pursuit of a greater life in America, deserve a chance to seek out good-paying, secure jobs,” James advised the Caribbean Media Company (CMC).
“It’s unconscionable that after all of the struggling they’ve endured on their journey, they encounter bureaucratic roadblocks stopping them from pursuing the American dream.
“Asylum-seekers and migrants are notably susceptible to abuse and exploitation, and I thank my fellow attorneys basic for becoming a member of this effort to make sure they’re handled with dignity,” she added.
Whereas many new immigrants, together with these searching for asylum standing, are keen to seek out employment to supply for themselves and their households, James stated that, with out work authorization, they’ve been pressured to depend on state and native security web applications for meals and shelter.
The coalition of attorneys basic notes of their letter that the arduous means of acquiring work authorization leaves many immigrant households with out secure housing and forces some to hunt work within the underground economic system, “the place they’re targets for exploitation.”
The New York Legal professional Normal stated present work authorization functions typically require costly charges or advanced price waiver necessities, stopping many immigrants from even making use of for the allow.
She stated backlogs in approving work authorization permits have led to months-long wait instances for approval.
“Migrants from areas equivalent to Haiti have been disproportionately impacted, with their humanitarian parole standing expiring earlier than their work authorization is granted,” James stated, including, “Such structural limitations forestall these susceptible populations from turning into self-sufficient and constructing secure lives in America.”
She stated the coalition absolutely helps DHS’ earlier measures to enhance entry to work authorization, which included rushing up utility processing and rising the time that work authorization permits are legitimate.
Nevertheless, James stated the coalition’s letter notes that extra measures are wanted to eradicate new immigrants’ limitations to discovering secure jobs to assist themselves.
She stated the coalition recommends DHS take 4 extra steps to expedite entry to work authorization, specifically grant provisional work authorization to permit eligible parolees and asylum-seekers to work whereas their full utility for work authorization is pending; eradicate utility charges for these granted humanitarian parole and allow functions with a price waiver to be submitted on-line and re-parole these awaiting work authorization to forestall the expiration of their parole standing whereas trying to acquire employment.
The coalition additionally desires to streamline the appliance processes to make it simpler for immigrants to use for work authorization and for DHS to course of functions.
For instance, the New York Legal professional Normal stated the coalition recommends simplifying and translating the work authorization utility type into a number of languages to make it extra accessible for candidates.
This motion is the most recent instance of Legal professional Normal James preventing for the Caribbean and different immigrant communities.
In August, she stopped a fraudulent immigrant help supplier that was deceptive and intimidating immigrants in Westchester County in New York State and New York Metropolis.
Additionally in August, Legal professional Normal James joined a coalition of attorneys calling on DHS to expedite immigrant work authorization.
In March, James co-led a coalition of twenty-two attorneys basic to push again towards the continuing effort by Texas to finish the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
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