Venezuelans seeking asylum in the US who are already living in the country will be allowed to work legally under new rules announced by the Biden administration.

About 472,000 people will be eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a period of 18 months.

It follows calls by Democrats to expand work access for newly-arrived migrants.

US cities have been grappling with large numbers fleeing economic and political turmoil in Venezuela.

People must have been living in the US on or before 31 July to be eligible for temporary deportation relief and access to work permits under TPS. If granted, they will be allowed to work while they wait for an asylum determination to be made.

  • Pat12@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Immigrants make the best citizens. They actively want or need to be there, so they’re more likely to participate in the less glamorous parts of being a citizen. They build resilient communities, expose their new neighbors to different cultures and experiences, open great restaurants, and are less likely to commit crimes than existing citizens.

    We are all better off when there’s a large and diverse immigrant population. It enriches everyone, both culturally AND financially.

    We need more immigrants, not fewer.

    There are two sides. They also can introduce problems to their new countries that largely solely exist in their home countries. For example, the UK has one of the highest rate of acid attacks, but this is fairly recent problem in the UK. There were all the sexual assaults in Europe in recent years. In North America there is caste discrimination in cities like San Francisco and Toronto. There are separatist/sectarian violence in developed countries which would not otherwise have it. An example from hongkong is sometimes triads will go to other countries and operate there.

    • BertramDitore@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah I read about the caste discrimination in San Francisco, it’s a pretty fascinating example. I personally think when you couple the benefits to society as a whole with the day-to-day improvements for individual immigrants, the positives come out waaay ahead of the potential risks. And I think those risks could be mitigated by making deliberate and thoughtful policy–obviously outlandish, I know.

      • Pat12@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        those risks could be mitigated by making deliberate and thoughtful policy–

        the problem is that these sorts of problems are never even considered by govts until it’s too late.