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Potentially thousands of community volunteers waiting to be tapped

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Illinois

* I don’t think these asylum-seeker ideas floated by the Illinois Policy Institute are gonna work, but at least they’re trying…

Some have called on the Biden administration to expedite work permits for undocumented migrants, but federal law currently requires asylum seekers to wait about 180 days before they can apply for permission to work legally in the United States. It would take an act of Congress to change that law and allow asylum seekers to legally work sooner. […]

Some states are exploring the limits of their authority. New York is floating the idea of issuing their own state work permits for asylum seekers so they become less of a burden on local social services. Circumventing federal wait periods through state work permits is likely to face legal challenge, and it is not clear states have the authority to do so. The UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Poverty has proposed state universities or other state entities could hire asylum seekers without running afoul of federal law. The University of California regents are planning to hire undocumented students under this theory. That strategy seems to have more sound footing in statute and case law, but it has not yet been litigated, either.

* New York Times…

Frustrated by the federal response to the migrant crisis, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday that New York State was considering ways to issue work permits to asylum seekers in a bid to circumvent the long wait for permits at the federal level. […]

Earlier on Tuesday, White House officials pushed back against a state-level work permit system. In a call with reporters, senior administration officials said that work permits were “very clearly a federal authority,” adding that workarounds were “not something that we would encourage states to pursue.” […]

“A court would be very likely to strike such a state permitting process down if it involves allowing private employers to use these state-issued work permits to hire recent migrants,” said Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell University.

Mr. Yale-Loehr and other immigration law experts have called for a different approach that they argue is allowed under federal law: having state governments hire asylum seekers directly. The University of California regents, for example, announced earlier this year that the university system would explore a way to hire students who lack legal status and work permits.

A very real consequence of the state issuing its own private sector work permits is that the asylum-seekers who go to work could be found in non-compliance with federal law and then be deported.

And direct government employment would also gonna run smack dab into our state’s byzantine and slow-as-molasses public employee hiring regulations and its union contracts. Not to mention the budgetary costs. It’s one thing for a university to hire a few dozen undocumented students. It’s quite another to put thousands of new arrivals (many or even most of whom don’t speak English) on the public payroll.

* However, just about every charitable, religious and social service organization is short of volunteers, and many need Spanish language volunteers. So many migrants are just hanging out all day, every day. Connect at least some of them with those groups. It won’t put money in their pockets, but it will give them something to do and would benefit the community at large.

* As of Friday, 20,221 migrants have arrived in Chicago since last year. 11,737 are currently in shelters (4,117 are children) and another 3,228 are currently in staging areas like police stations (731 children). That means about ten thousand adults are in the system, although not all of them will qualify for this…

A Biden administration pilot program, kicking off Thursday in Chicago, is designed to help new arrivals in shelters overwhelming the city apply for their work authorizations.

The pilot program is a joint effort of the White House, Illinois, City Hall and the Resurrection Project, a social service agency that provides legal services for migrants. […]

Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesperson, told the Sun-Times that the launch Thursday of what they call a “clinic” is designed to be “a one-stop-shop work authorization clinic to help get eligible noncitizens work authorizations and jobs — and decompress the shelter system.

“The clinic will begin with a pilot, serving approximately 150 migrants per day, and we will work with the state, city and the Resurrection Project as they scale in the coming days and weeks,” Fernández Hernández said.

It’s gonna take a while.

* Meanwhile, from Fox 32…

On the eve of a major meeting in Brighton Park, and just hours until migrant families are set to move into a shelter in West Town, a group of Englewood residents is calling on the city to turn migrant buses around.

Held at the Center of Englewood, a group of residents attended what was dubbed a ‘Stop the Buses’ rally.

Hosted by the Black American Voters Project and NumbersUSA, panelists shared how they feel immigration negatively impacts Black Americans.

Turnout was small, and Fox 32 reporter Kasey Chronis for some reason didn’t mention that NumbersUSA was founded by a white nationalist.

Ugh.

Returning to my above idea, migrants volunteering in communities would show those community members that they’re non-threatening, even helpful human beings.

* More from Isabel…

The Hill | More than 100 mayors back Biden’s supplemental request with added migrant funding:

* NYT | Republicans Are Hammering Democrats on the Migrant Crisis. Will It Work?: The episode has been played on repeat this fall in attack ads blanketing the airwaves in Erie County as Republicans try to turn the migrant crisis gripping the state into a political cudgel to flip perhaps the most important elected office in western New York. Clear across the state, on the tip of Long Island, a similar dynamic is playing out in Suffolk County, where Republicans are favored to win back the top office for the first time in two decades. Part of their strategy: attack ads focused on the busloads of migrants arriving in New York City, miles away from the suburbs.

* Fox Boston | Gov. Healey: Emergency migrant shelters expected to reach capacity as soon as today: A majority of the migrants coming into the state have been staying in motels and hotels, but by either Tuesday or Wednesday, the state expects there won’t be any rooms left and families will have to be put on waiting lists. According to the state’s latest numbers, there are currently 7,439 families enrolled in the state’s shelter system. The state reports that 30 of those families came on board in the last 24 hours.

* CBS Colorado | Denver spends millions of dollars on plane, bus and train tickets for migrants to other cities: Over the last year, Denver has spent nearly $4.5 million transporting more than 12,000 migrants out-of-state […] [Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for Denver Human Services] provided a spreadsheet showing the city has transported migrants to virtually every major city in the country over the last year. It’s not only sent them to big cities but smaller ones like Wilson, North Carolina. Most of them have gone to Chicago, New York and Salt Lake City. It’s also sent several hundred migrants to Texas, which has bused 6,600 migrants to Colorado since May according to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 11:58 am

Comments

To your point of social service orgs using the migrants as volunteers, they probably could have some money funneled their way to provide meals to these volunteers. That way at least they are getting one meal a day.

Comment by Unionman Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 12:06 pm
Seems like there could be a logical, legal flow to “employ” migrants by non-profits: (1) migrants volunteer to assist the non-profit; (2) the non-profit provides meals and lodging for the migrant volunteers; (3) the state reimburses the non-profit through a grant program.

Comment by Sterling Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 12:44 pm
“Fox 32 reporter Kasey Chronis for some reason didn’t mention that NumbersUSA was founded by a white nationalist.”

There are a total of two possible reasons this went unmentioned, both of which are an indictment of Fox 32.
Not that I expect anything more from newsotainers.

Comment by Larry Bowa Jr. Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 1:04 pm
There are more Ukrainian refugees in the Chicagoland area than there are from South America. The federal government needs to step in and help the refugees from the south like they have for other refugees.

Comment by DisappointedVoter Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 1:20 pm
“Returning to my above idea, migrants volunteering in communities would show those community members that they’re non-threatening, even helpful human beings.”

With the City obviously yielding to non-profits to respond to this situation, the Mayor should be doing press events on the ground with the organizations and migrants to help tell their story and make communities less scared of them. Conservative organizations and people like Ald. Lopez are spinning narratives that dehumanize them on a daily basis. These are families with stories that all of Chicago can connect with. The Mayor needs to come out from under his rock.

Comment by NIU Grad Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 1:24 pm
Excellent idea to have migrants volunteer to help social service organizations. It should be implemented immediately.

Comment by Just a Citizen Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 1:32 pm
==There are more Ukrainian refugees in the Chicagoland area than there are from South America.==

This is like comparing apples to oranges. Ukranians are refugees not asylum seekers, which puts them into a totally different immigration status with protections. Ukranians also could not enter the United States until they had documents, which was much easier to control considering the ocean separating continents–South Americans came without documentation via the Southern border, which adds to the legal work authorization predicament.

Second, Ukranians were required to have a sponsor before entering the US, meaning they already had people here willing to provide housing and pay for them to be settled.
Third, the majority of Ukranians who have arrived are women, children, or elderly who are joining their family who are already established. This is because the men were not permitted to leave. The majority of South Americans are young men 18-35.

These facts make a difference.

Comment by LastModDemStanding Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 2:00 pm
===The majority of South Americans are young men 18-35. ===

According to the city, single men make up 25% of the population, while families make up 71%

https://drive.google.com/file/d/139O-rgPPArpY4Tf7o46lrdwjl9YuMAqx/view?usp=drive_link

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 2:06 pm
Rich - thanks for putting out the actual percentages of young men vs. families. The alternative truth about the composition consisting mostly of young men between 18 - 35 is rampant. It needs to be pushed out a lot more.

I also really like the expedited work authorization pilot. It gets these people a huge step closer to getting their own homes and what will eventually be new neighborhoods like Humboldt Park, China Town, Little Italy and Greek Town reflecting their culture.

Comment by levivotedforjudy Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 3:16 pm
Thank you for posting the data sheet the City sends Rich.
Interestingly enough, the data displayed on the earlier versions of the new arrivals dashboard is where the majority single men came from. It’s no longer displayed in the previous format on the City website, but that was the origin of that assumption.

Comment by LastModDemStanding Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 3:55 pm
== These facts make a difference.==

No one is disputing those facts but you forgot the biggest fact of all, the federal government has allocated billions to one group and not the other.

Comment by DisappointedVoter Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 5:09 pm
Billions of dollars to Ukrainians who have arrived in the US? Please cite a source for that. The only billions of dollars the federal government has allocated is for arms, weapons and related in country for those fighting a war.
The hundred thousand plus of Afghan refugees were allocated much more financially.

Comment by LastModDemStanding Tuesday, Nov 7, 23 @ 9:31 pm