Gov. Hochul calls up 150 more National Guard members to cope with NY’s mounting migrant crisis
New York is calling up another 150 National Guard members to help deal with the crush of migrants in the Big Apple, including by processing asylum seekers’ work permits, the governor announced Monday.
The move comes as a Lower Manhattan federal office opened and began processing at least 40 applicants waiting to get work authorization.
“I walk around New York — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island — asking stores if they need work done,” said Ayad Nofal, a 56-year-old former candle-factory owner from Venezuela, to The Post outside the new Beaver Street processing center.
”I clean the stores and fill the fridges. I work seven days and make $20 or $30 or $40 a day in six hours,” said the migrant, who has been living in a tent with his wife on Roosevelt Island after timing out of a city shelter on the Upper West Side under Gotham’s 60-day-stay rule.
“At the shelter on Randall’s Island, I got the application for a work permit, but I came here, and they denied me,” lamented Nofal, who said he was forced to flee his country because he voted against the government and it cracked down on his business.
“I don’t understand. They’re saying I have to wait the full 150 days. I have another appointment” next week.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said the extra Guardsmen will allow the state to dedicate a total of 250 of the 2,200 members currently on duty to solely focus on case management for asylum seekers.
The National Guard members will help migrants in filling out federal applications, locating housing and when possible, finding jobs.
“You’ll be helping them get a job, helping them support themselves, helping them leave these shelters, because I believe they did not come all these thousands of miles to live in a shelter with hundreds if not thousands of others,” Hochul said to the National Guard members at the Harlem Armory.
“Give them what they want, which is a quick exit out of the shelter system.”
She said a key assignment will be to help thousands of Venezuelans — who will soon have temporary protected status after a federal change last week — process their applications to work in the United States.
Those who came through the country’s southern border with Mexico before July 31 will be eligible for the temporary status.
“We have the need [for jobs] and the demand [for workers],” Hochul said, adding, “Match them together and that’s how you take a crisis and turn it into an opportunity.”
Nestor Daniel Sierra, 31, who was a biochemist before fleeing Venezuela, told The Post at the downtown Manhattan processing site that he should be able to work in two weeks after submitting his paperwork there Monday morning.
“I want to start out as a waiter or a barman making drinks,” he said. “Eventually, I want to get my academic degrees recognized in America so I can continue with science and academics, which I love.
“There was so much violence in Venezuela, I worried if I stayed there I would die,” Sierra said. ”It’s complicated, but if you’re not with the government, you’re not safe.”
He said he was going to a church Tuesday to get a winter jacket and boots. The migrant said he will spend his first paycheck on long johns.
The frustrated Nofal said he and his 32-year-old wife will continue to “sleep on stretchers like soldiers” on Randall’s Island as he pushes to get his work permit.
He said he has been in the US since May 1 but spent time in Florida before coming to the Big Apple.
The migrant said he thinks his address switch is the issue holding up him from getting expedited working papers.
“There was a problem with changing my address from Florida to New York,” he said.
“I want to work,” Nofal said. “I want to start my own business. I want to start small, start from scratch and make a successful business.”
The governor activated the state guard in October 2022 to help deal with the mounting migrant crisis.
More than 113,000 migrants have come through New York City since the start of the mess, with nearly 60,000 still in the city’s care.
