(NewsNation) — Migrants and asylum-seekers navigating a new life in American sanctuary cities are often willing to do whatever is necessary to make financial ends meet, which can be difficult without legal work authorizations.
In places like New York, Denver, and Chicago, new arrivals are left to strike out on their own to support themselves and their families.
Some migrants work for cash by washing windows and hawking candy or food to strangers on the street. Others find ways to skirt authorizations.
Either option often comes with risks and long hours. Migrants say it’s worth it for a chance to chase their version of the American dream.
“It’s hard to be in a new city. You don’t know where to start,” Edelyn Flores, a Venezuelan migrant in Chicago, told NewsNation in Spanish. “It’s hard, but I feel capable of starting from scratch.”
She added: “I came to this country to get ahead.”
Migrant work authorizations a waiting game
In Chicago, where more than 41,000 migrants have been sent since 2022, only a small fraction are authorized to work legally.
Flores said she just started the long process of applying for work authorization — which can take five to six months for asylum-seekers.
Without knowing when she will obtain a permit, she sells hot dogs on the street to make whatever cash she can.
Chicago police have told her she can’t sell food in the street, Flores said, but that hasn’t stopped her.
“The police come to tell us to get rid of them (but) if we get rid of them, how do we make money?” said Flores, who was bused to Chicago in October. She said she hopes to one day make enough money to buy a home for her mother and children back in Venezuela.
In New York City, more than 37,000 migrants have applied for asylum and work authorization through the city’s Asylum Application Help Center, according to reports.
However, officials with the agency said the number of applications the center has processed represents less than a quarter of the new arrivals who have been bused to New York since 2022.
In Denver, only about 1,600 have obtained work authorizations out of nearly 40,000 migrants sent there since 2022.
A spokesman for the Denver Department of Human Services told NewsNation that jobs in hospitality, food service and construction are options for migrants with the proper authorization. But like in many places, without the necessary work permits, the jobs being sought by migrants remain unfilled.
Crossing legal boundaries to find work
Others who have not filed paperwork or do not have legal work permits are left to do what they feel is necessary.
Pedro, a migrant from Peru, told The New York Post he delivers food in Manhattan by paying a friend $100 a week to illegally use his Uber Eats account.
“There are good days and bad days,” he told the Post, adding he works 10 hours a day six or seven times a week.
Migrants in Washington, D.C., have been using mopeds to deliver food, though many don’t appear to be registered. Legally, mopeds require a license and insurance.
Samuel Bravo from Venezuela told NewsNation he delivers food on his moped to pay his rent.
“I have access to what I make every day,” he said. “If I make $100 today, I have access to those $100 instantly.”
In late April, three Republican senators demanded delivery apps explain how they take steps to curb migrants from filling in as delivery drivers.
“The danger to Americans — and specifically consumers using your services — is real,” they wrote. “These illegal immigrants are delivering food directly to consumers’ doors without ever having undergone a background check and often without even using their real names.”
Many families take to the streets to panhandle from strangers. Others do what they can.
Denisse, a migrant from Ecuador, pedals candy to drivers in Chicago with her two children in tow. She told the Chicago Sun-Times that she doesn’t have a work permit, but she would rather sell sweets with one of her children on her shoulders for a few dollars rather than “sit there with my arms crossed.”
“I need to make a living somehow,” she told the Sun-Times.
No easy answers or paths for migrants
Sarah Flagel, a Chicago-based Asylum Legal Clinic managing attorney at the humanitarian organization World Relief, told NewsNation that most migrants want to be self-sustaining.
But navigating the complicated process of becoming eligible to work in the United States comes with the need for patience and understanding. Flagel said there are very limited means to access legal work authorizations. Even those who file paperwork for asylum must wait five months before they can even apply for a work permit. Then, even more time passes before the authorization is issued, requiring even more patience.
For others, the road to legal work can be much longer as they await immigration hearings that can be years into the future.
“Sometimes we think folks can just sign up sign on the dotted line, sign up for a work permit and it will just magically come,” Flagel said.
Various elected officials, including mayors from Chicago, Denver and New York, have all pushed for the Biden administration to do more to create a faster path to work for migrants in the process of seeking asylum. But without Congress interceding, Flagel said the White House’s options for more authorizations remain limited.
That leaves many migrants like Flores to do whatever they can to make things work. She said she continues to sell hot dogs no matter the weather — even if it means getting wet or standing in the hail.
“When you want to move forward, rain doesn’t stop us,” Flores told NewsNation. “(Neither does) sun (or cold). God is the only one who stops us.”