Tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants in New York City woke up on Thursday to the news that the U.S. government would grant them “temporary protected status” — a designation that will allow them to legally live and work in the country.
Policymakers from Washington to Albany to City Hall have long sought the move, which the White House announced on Wednesday night, as New York City grapples with housing newcomers in overflowing shelters and makeshift camps.
But the news was perhaps no more welcome than among migrants themselves, many of whom are eager to begin working and building their lives in the country’s most populous city.
“It’s great news, that would give us the opportunity to get papers,” said Leonardo Mesa, 33, a Venezuelan migrant staying at a shelter in Clinton Hill.
Since coming to the country seven months ago, Mesa said he’s been able to find some work doing construction and painting. But because he doesn’t have work authorization, work has been sporadic — and all under the table.
“We didn’t come here to live off the state, we came here to work and find better days, better work. But with this situation, you can’t stabilize yourself,” he said in Spanish.
Outside of the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, one of the city’s emergency shelters for migrants, Milagros Conde breathed a sigh of relief. The 21-year-old arrived in the U.S. in May with her two children and her partner from Venezuela, making them eligible for TPS through the federal government’s extension and redesignation.
“I’m just so happy because I can get a work permit. And when you’re able to work, you can find solutions to a lot of problems,” Conde said in Spanish.
Conde was unaware of the news until she was told by a reporter. She said she’d spent the last six nights sleeping on the street after she was kicked out of the Roosevelt Hotel for her involvement in an altercation.
“They have me from here to there, from there to here, I haven’t even had time to watch TV,” she said.
As for what kind of work she’d like to do?
“Ay, en lo que sea,” Conde responded, meaning “oh, whatever” — she just wants to work legally. As a big smile spread on her face, she said it didn’t matter if she was cleaning or doing other work. She just wanted to afford food for her family.
But scrounging together a living in the city’s informal economy has been difficult. Conde said the NYPD recently confiscated her partner’s moped — part of a city crackdown on the unregistered vehicles.
“It’s not easy going hungry,” she added.
Mesa said he and others were eager to get out of city shelters.
“There’s no hot water here, the beds aren’t good. So we’re working to try and find a place to go, to get some money to pay rent because this life here isn’t comfortable. There are two bathrooms for 100 people, imagine,” Mesa told Gothamist.
While some newcomers are celebrating the prospects of being able to legally work and reside in the U.S. without fear of deportation, some who arrived more recently or from other countries aren’t as fortunate.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday night that the U.S. will extend and redesignate Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants who have been living continuously in the U.S. prior to July 31.
Rolian Salazar, 28, also from Venezuela, arrived in New York 10 days ago with her partner and five children, placing her outside of the window of eligibility.
“On one side, I think it’s great,” Salazar said outside of the Roosevelt Hotel. “But people are still coming and we need work.”
While Venezuelans make up about 40% of the roughly 100,000 migrants who have arrived in New York City over the last year, Mayor Eric Adams said they only account for about 15,000 people currently in city shelters.
”It is probably the first step in the right direction,” Adams said in an interview with NBC New York on Wednesday night. “We’re saying 15,000 that fit this criteria and we’re getting 10,000 a month. We clearly need to look at some of the other countries that are impacted.”
The decision to grant the migrants protected status followed President Joe Biden’s visit to the city this week, where he met with Gov. Kathy Hochul — but notably avoided sitting down with Adams.
Venezuela has been in the throes of a political, humanitarian and economic crisis for roughly a decade — and the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated it. The country is plagued by hyperinflation, which was 234% in 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. For comparison, the U.S.’ rate of inflation last year was 6.5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U.S. has also imposed sanctions on Venezuela for the last decade.
The U.N. estimates that roughly 7.3 million people have fled Venezuela since 2014 due to poverty, gang warfare, political oppression and a lack of medicine and basic services. Of those, about 6 million have relocated around Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the U.N., while just under 500,000 have ended up in the U.S.
Without legal work permits, many of those migrants said they are finding work in construction, cleaning or picking up bottles in the street. But they say employers take advantage of them and pay them below minimum wage.
“In construction, they said it’s $15 an hour and they give us $12,” said Johanna Rodriguez, 40, who arrived four months ago from Ecuador. “At a factory I went to, they pay $25 an hour and we got $10 an hour.”
Christian Portuguez, a 40-year-old Peruvian migrant living at the Clinton Hill shelter, says he thinks it’s unfair that only Venezuelans will be able to qualify for relief.
“I think it should be equal for everyone,” he said.
“My family is still there, and I’m fighting here to bring them. Every day is really hard,” Portuguez said, choking up. “You suffer a lot. But I’m with God, and I know that things will end up well.”
Jessi Lufrant, a Haitian migrant who arrived two months ago, echoed that same sentiment and said her country is faring even worse than Venezuela.
“I’m asking why only the Venezuelans and not us? If we go through the same thing, we come here for the same reason, we go through the same hell as they do,” Lufrant said in Spanish. But she remained optimistic their turn would come.
“Maybe we will be next, maybe it’ll be us, too,” she said.
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