NECOCLI, Colombia — New York City Mayor Eric Adams capped a four-day trip to Latin America on Saturday by calling for a “right to work” for migrants in the United States.
He spoke during a visit to Necocli, the northern Colombian town where thousands of migrants begin their perilous trek through the roadless jungle from Darien to Panama, headed for the United States.
Speaking from a dock where migrants embark for the jungle, Mr Adams said countries in the region must “come together” to find solutions to the immigration crisis being felt across the Americas as well as in cities across the United States, including New York.
He called on the U.S. government to find ways for migrants and asylum seekers to work legally in the United States.
“Colombia has really shown how to integrate people into their societies, and one of the most important ways to do that is to allow people to work,” Adams told reporters at Necocli. Nothing is more human and nothing is more American than the right to work, and we believe it’s a right we should expand.”
New York City has struggled to provide emergency shelter for tens of thousands of migrants arriving in the city this year, with Mr. Adams and other city leaders calling on the federal government to speed up work authorizations for those who are already installed.
A groundbreaking law dating from the 1980s requires New York to provide shelter to anyone in need. Mr. Adams said the cost of supporting migrants could climb as much as $12 billion over the next three years, and this week challenged the law that requires the city to provide shelter for migrants.
The mayor also visited Ecuador and Mexico during his tour, where he visited migrant shelters and spoke with local lawmakers.
After stopping in the Mexican state of Puebla, Mr Adams said his town was “at capacity”.
“Our hearts are infinite, but our resources are not,” Adams told reporters. We don’t want to put people in collective shelters. We don’t want people to think they’ll get a job.”
“Question of luck”
In Colombia, Adams said his goal was not to tell migrants what to do, but to learn their motivations and find solutions to the immigration crisis.
The South American country has welcomed 2.8 million Venezuelan migrants over the past seven years and allowed them to apply for a 10-year residence permit that also gives them access to health and education services.
But despite efforts to regularize Venezuelan migrants, many are heading to the United States after struggling to rebuild their lives in Colombia and other South American countries, where economies are still reeling from the pandemic.
According to Panama’s National Immigration Service, more than 200,000 Venezuelans have crossed the Darién region this year on their way to the United States. Many are moving for the second or third time after living in South American countries like Colombia, Chile and Peru.
This week, the Biden administration reached an agreement with Venezuela’s socialist government to resume direct deportation flights to Venezuela and said Venezuelans who do not qualify for asylum would be returned to their country original.
In Necocli, some Venezuelan migrants heading north said they would persist in their march to reach the U.S. border despite the new policy.
“Entering (the United States) is also a matter of luck,” said Miguel Ruben Camacaro, a Venezuelan migrant traveling with his two children and sleeping in a tent on Necocli beach. We will pursue our dream until there are no other options.”
At a news conference later in Bogota, Mr. Adams said countries like Colombia needed more support with programs that integrated migrants so people did not make the dangerous journey north.
The mayor described the visit as an eye-opener, saying he was saddened to see dozens of families with children sleeping on Necocli beach in tents while they scraped together enough money to take boats to the Darién jungle.
“What I don’t want is for what I saw on Columbia Beach to happen on the streets of New York,” Adams said. We all want to help as many people as possible, we want to defend our values as a city of immigrants. But to achieve this, we must stabilize the situation.”
2023-10-08 02:11:33
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