US Allows Work Permits for About 500,000 Venezuelan Migrants
- Administration move protects asylum seekers from deportation
- New York City’s Adams hails move as ‘an important step’
Migrants from Venezuela along the bank of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas.
Photographer: John Moore/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The Biden administration has moved to provide hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants with work permits, meeting calls from New York and other cities strained by an influx of asylum seekers.
The Department of Homeland Security estimated Wednesday that 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived before July 31 will be eligible to work under the fresh Temporary Protected Status designation. The move, which protects the migrants from deportation, is part of a series of policies aimed at managing the growing number of arrivals at the US-Mexico border and in urban centers.