By Ashley Hupfl | The Daily Gazette, Schenectady
Gov. Kathy Hochul is defending a proposal to remove employment barriers for asylum seekers by creating “transitional” jobs in the state workforce.
The New York Post reported on Monday that the state Civil Service Commission is looking to create “transitional titles” in order to allow asylum seekers who have received federal work authorization to work for the state, according to a memo obtained by the paper.
Speaking to reporters in Albany on Tuesday, Hochul confirmed and detailed the plan. She said the state is currently facing two crises: the migrant crisis and a workforce shortage crisis.
“I have 460,000 openings right now in the state of New York. I have employers from the North Country, where I just was up in Lake Placid — hotel owners and restaurant owners — come to me and say, ‘Can you send some of the migrants up here, we need them.’ I hear this in every corner of the state,” Hochul said. “But, then I look at our workforce, I have 10,000 openings in the New York state workforce.”
The governor announced in October that the state had identified more than 18,000 job openings with nearly 400 employers who are willing to hire asylum seekers who have attained legal work status.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are 441,000 job openings in New York as of January. The state has 384,655 unemployed workers equaling an unemployment rate of 3.9%. There are 87 available workers for every 100 open jobs.
Assemblyman Robert Smullen, R-Meco, criticized Hochul’s proposal in a release on Monday.
“While so many young citizens in our state are struggling to find work and so many families are struggling to make ends meet, the governor is practically handing out jobs to migrants entering our state,” Smullen said in a statement. “The state cannot continue to assume this parental role in the face of the migrant crisis — providing financial aid, medical services and housing, finding jobs for migrants, loosening the requirements needed to go to work in our state, where will it end? It is ridiculous so many state resources are being directed toward incoming migrants who did not follow the correct channels to be here. What’s even more ridiculous: those resources are being taken away from New York families who could definitely use them instead.”
Most of the migrants currently living in New York City are seeking asylum and are here legally. The state is working to receive legal work authorization from the federal government, Hochul said.
“We have thousands of applications underway, we just have to get the answer on which ones have been approved and I’m anxious to get this moving quickly,” Hochul said. “Once they’re approved and they manage to get jobs, they don’t need to be reliant on services any longer, which I think is the objective. Put them to work. The answer to this whole situation: put them to work.”
The state’s actions come as federal lawmakers negotiate a federal immigration deal to address the situation at the nation’s southern border. Senators have hammered out a bipartisan border deal, however, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said any bipartisan legislation will be “dead on arrival.”
Hochul on Tuesday criticized Republicans’ stance on any immigration reform deal and called on New York Republicans to address the issue.
“If they really do want to deal with this crisis — to stop it, why aren’t Republicans in the state of New York banding together and asking for their leadership in Washington to sign onto the bill that the Senate [Democrats] negotiated with Republicans in the Senate? There is a deal waiting to be signed and they create chaos,” Hochul said. “And now, they keep moving the goal posts further for the fact that they realize they don’t really want to solve this. They liked the chaos that it has created.”
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