New York state politicians are considering a revolutionary — and totally illegal — program to have the state’s Department of Labor issue state-level work permits so that some of the 60,000 asylum seekers could work.
The problem with this idea is that only the federal government can issue work permits. The plan is for the state to pretend that the work permits are valid and businesses to pretend they won’t get into enormous legal difficulty if they hire workers pretending to be legal.
The White House isn’t pretending about their opposition to the cockamamie plan.
“This would be unprecedented,” Ms. Hochul said at a news conference in her Manhattan office. “I believe the federal government believes that we need to have their authority to move forward with state work permits, but, as I’ve said, we have to let them work.”
Earlier on Tuesday, White House officials pushed back against a state-level work permit system. In a call with reporters, senior administration officials said that work permits were “very clearly a federal authority,” adding that workarounds were “not something that we would encourage states to pursue.”
Instead, the officials said they were focused this month on helping the city and state accelerate the permit application process for migrants who were already eligible to work but had not yet filled out the necessary paperwork. The White House was unable to say how many migrants in the city are in that category, but said the number was substantial.
“A court would be very likely to strike such a state permitting process down if it involves allowing private employers to use these state-issued work permits to hire recent migrants,” said Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell University.
Well, yeah. It’s a no-brainer legal case that makes you wonder why liberals think that just because there’s an “emergency” you can suspend the Constitution. We’re seeing the same mindset at work in New Mexico, where Gov. Lujan Grisham has suspended the Constitution and ordered an end to the carrying of guns in Albuquerque.
Related: New York City to Cut Up to 15% of Its Budget to Pay for Migrant Influx
“Emergency” does not give any state or the federal government the right to suspend the rule of law on a whim.
One state bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz and State Senator Luis Sepulveda, both Democrats, would task the State Department of Labor with creating a temporary permitting program and issuing permits within 45 days after a person applies. The bill would allow both private and public sector employers to hire the asylum seekers.
“Let’s fight and find a way around the clear powers of the federal government versus the state,” Ms. Cruz said in an interview. “I think we came up with a with a bill that recognizes that in the instance of an emergency, the state has the power to do this.”
No, the state does not have the power to do this under any circumstances, Ms. Cruz — a fact you recognize by wanting to “find a way around the clear powers of the federal government versus the state.” There’s nothing ambiguous about it. You and your colleagues in the New York legislature simply want to ignore the law and play a game of “pretend.”
If the legislature is stupid enough to pass one of these bills and Hochul is crazy enough to sign it, the bill will be in federal court before the ink dries.
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