City Hall walks back Mayor Adams’ TPS data, says way more than 15,000 Venezuelans in NYC shelters likely eligible
Officials in Mayor Adams’ administration on Wednesday walked back his claim that only 15,000 Venezuelans staying in city shelters are eligible for a newly expanded form of immigration status that can put them on a fast track to work permits.
In a migrant crisis briefing, Dr. Ted Long, a top official in the city’s public hospital system, said there are actually at least 22,000 newly-arrived Venezuelans in city shelters eligible for the new designation, known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. Long said that number could even grow as the city is in the process of surveying all migrants in its care for eligibility, with about 70% polled so far.
Long’s comments contradict Adams’ statement last Thursday that just 15,000 Venezuelans in city shelters are newly eligible for TPS thanks to the Biden administration’s decision to offer it to anyone from the South American country who entered the U.S. before July 31.
But in a head-scratching twist, a spokesman for Long told reporters after Wednesday’s briefing that Long also misspoke when he said 22,000 Venezuelans in city shelters are newly-eligible for TPS.
The spokesman, Adam Shrier, said Long’s 22,000 figure references the total number of Venezuelan nationals in city shelters, not those who are newly-eligible for TPS.
Still, Shrier acknowledged the 15,000 figure the mayor disclosed last week likely isn’t accurate either as the administration expects the number of TPS-eligible Venezuelans in city shelters to grow higher than that once the survey referenced by Long is completed.
Asked why Adams shared the 15,000 number before that survey was finished, Shrier said the mayor acted on the best information available to City Hall at the time.
To make matters even thornier, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which processes TPS applications, believes the city’s numbers are wildly incorrect, as first reported by the Daily News.
Department of Homeland Security officials told The News last week that their data shows the number of Venezuelans in city shelters is actually around 39,000, accounting for a majority of the roughly 60,000 migrants estimated to be in the city’s care. The officials said their data also shows nearly all of those 39,000 Venezuelans are presumed to be eligible for the new TPS designation, as only a handful of them entered after the July 31 cutoff date.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman did not return a request for comment Wednesday on the latest data confusion from Adams’ administration.
Temporary Protected Status opens the door to fast-tracked work permits because migrants can apply for employment authorization along with their TPS claims. Migrants who aren’t on TPS need to wait six months after submitting their asylum claim before they can even apply for a work permit.
Adams and a large chorus of his fellow New York Democrats have said allowing newly-arrived migrants to quickly secure work permits is a critical part of resolving the asylum seeker crisis.
In Wednesday’s briefing, Long said it’s “OK” if the number on TPS eligibility in shelters keeps changing as it’s important that the city identifies every migrant who’s eligible for fast-tracked work papers.
“It’s not just about statistics, this is how we know what help people need,” he said. “That is the most important part.”
