City lawmakers want Mayor Eric Adams to add an extra $70 million into the city budget to fund legal help for migrants seeking asylum and applying for working papers – a process that can take “months if not years.”
“We also believe it is critical – not only for those seeking asylum, but also for the City’s long-term fiscal stability – to significantly ramp up outreach and legal immigration services to help asylum seekers navigate the paperwork that will enable them to live, work, and contribute to our city,” wrote City Comptroller Brad Lander and Councilwoman Shahana Hanif in a letter to Adams on May 9.
“With a dedicated all-hands outreach effort and an investment of $70 million for legal services, the City can significantly reduce the shelter length of stay, redeploy existing shelter space for people newly in need or newly arrived, reduce the number of people otherwise in the shelter system, and save significantly on the costs of operating shelters,” the pair added.
The letter also comes before the anticipated end of the controversial federal immigration policy, Title 42, which could further overburden the Big Apple’s immigration system.
City Hall did not return an immediate request for comment.
The Post previously reported that New York’s US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “mostly booked” through 2023, meaning individuals awaiting immigration court dates could wait up to a decade.
During a City Council executive budget hearing on immigration, City Councilman and Finance Chair Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn) asked city officials why legal services weren’t ramped up last year when the first migrants started arriving – that way they would’ve been able to apply for asylum and work authorization faster.
“It takes months if not years to access work authorization, no matter which type of status the person is eligible for,” admitted Tom Tortorici, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Director of Legal Initiatives during the Wednesday hearing.
New York has already accepted more than 61,000 migrants since last spring, with over 37,000 living in upwards of 120 taxpayer-funded shelters.
On Wednesday the city’s head of migrant services Manual Castro said 800 to 1,000 have been arriving in New York City each day.