DENVER — Many Coloradans, whether in downtown Denver or the greater metro area, have noticed an increasing number of migrants standing on street corners or in Home Depot parking lots, among several other places, looking for work.
"As people continue to view the United States as a place of opportunity, as a place of safety... a desired place to begin their lives anew, then we're going to have people coming here and trying to navigate the immigration legal process. And one of the ways to keep people from having their lives stagnate is to make it easier for people to navigate those legal processes," said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor, immigration lawyer, and author of "Welcome the Wretched: In Defense of the Criminal Alien."
Denver
Migrants in Denver face work permit obstacles in path toward steady employment
Until that process becomes easier, many migrants find themselves turning to other means to try and get money to feed themselves and their families, let alone find housing, until they can get more stable employment.
Denver7 got a call into the newsroom Thursday from one viewer who wondered about the people offering to wash car windows in exchange for money.
"The culture of window washing is absolutely common across Latin America, and most of the rest of the developing world. And so it's actually not at all a surprise. Every time I see somebody approach my car at an intersection and offered to wash my car, I'm reminded of all of the times when I've been traveling outside the United States," García Hernández said.
However, this is technically a form of panhandling, García Hernández said. So there's a risk these people could run into a problem with police, just like any American-born panhandler would.
Not only that, but it's not consistent work. For that, migrants need what's known as work authorization from the U.S. government.
While every migrant has to fill out basically the same application to get such a permit, the federal government will only approve migrants for work authorization under specific circumstances.
Where to begin?
"The overwhelming majority of people who migrate to the United States do so through one of the various legal options available based on family ties or employment," García Hernández said.
For example, in fiscal year 2022 (which ended Sept. 30, 2022), 594,309 people obtained permanent residence through a family relationship and 270,284 through employment, according to García Hernández.
"This doesn’t even count any of the people who were admitted into the United States for a specific purpose under a temporary visa (e.g., for vacation, to study at a university, or for a time-limited work assignment)," García Hernández said.
However, for migrants who don't fall into that category, the government must determine if they meet one of three criteria: parole, temporary protected status (TPS) or asylum.
Parole
Parole is for non-citizens trying to get into the U.S. temporarily for urgent humanitarian reasons. It is country-specific, similarly to temporary protected status, according to immigration lawyer and MSU professor Arturo Jiménez.
"Partly, it's where they're coming from, what country they're citizens of. Are they citizens of one of the countries that the Biden administration has announced policies for granting parole — countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine? Or are they, you know, citizens of any number of other countries, including countries in Africa and parts of Asia?" García Hernández said.
The decision to grant parole is often made by immigration officials when the migrant crosses the border, according to García Hernández.
"For folks who have been granted parole, and then they're allowed to proceed further north in the country — that's also become quite common among the migrants that we've seen reach the Denver metro area in recent months — those folks can apply immediately for a work permit. So they don't have that six-month waiting period that say, the asylum applicants do," García Hernández said.
Temporary Protected Status
Temporary protected status only applies to people coming from certain countries at certain times. For example, Venezuelans who have been living in the U.S. since before July 31, 2023 might qualify.
"It's never forward looking. So it always applies to people who arrived at some point in the past," Jiménez said.
"There's TPS for many countries. El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua have TPS. There's a number of African countries that have TPS. It goes country by country," Jiménez said.
But TPS only applies if the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security has designated your country. So migrants from those countries can get TPS, but others from non-designated countries cannot, according to Jiménez.
"So... we first need to know what country are you from, in order to determine what benefits you might be eligible for. And then, we need to know all the details of what you might suffer or what's going on in your home country to see if you're eligible for asylum," Jiménez said.
Asylum
For a migrant to qualify for asylum, they have to apply within one year of arriving to the U.S. And they must prove persecution in their home country for things like race, nationality or gender.
"It's difficult to meet... showing fear of persecution... it's a question of 'Are you fleeing for your life?'" García Hernández said.
Once migrants who are eligible apply for asylum, they must wait 150 days from submitting the application to filling out a separate application for work authorization.
"If someone's not really qualified for asylum, it's not good for them to ask for it... because then they're just gonna get themselves in more trouble. So it gets real hard for immigrants to figure out if they're actually eligible," Jiménez said.
Barriers to complete the application
If you happen to qualify for a work permit, you may then have to worry about cost. Asylum applications are all free and so are some work authorization applications for migrants granted parole.
However, other types of employment authorization applications could cost upwards of $500 when you factor in the biometric screening the application initially requires.
There are fee waivers available. But "oftentimes, the fee waiver doesn't apply to the $410 application fee," García Hernández said. It only applies to the extra $80+ fee for the biometrics screening.
It's upwards of $500 for migrants granted TPS to apply for work authorization as well.
If migrants applying can clear the financial hurdle, they may still face honest mistakes in filling out the paperwork.
"If, for example, there's a discrepancy in the way that a person's name is spelled between when they initially entered the United States at the border and received that parole authorization and the way that that name appears on their work authorization application, that's enough reason for the immigration officials to simply deny the application," García Hernández said.
He points to examples where migrants aren't trying to hide the truth. They're exhausted, going through a high-stress process and may be communicating with a government official whose first language isn't the same as theirs, García Hernández explained.
If they can fill out the paperwork without any issues, there are still documentation requirements that may pose challenges.
"If people actually apply and are eligible for either the TPS program... or for asylum, sometimes they get stuck in the process because they don't have good identification. And unfortunately, many people had to leave with the clothes on their backs... through the jungles in Central America and Mexico to get here, and they don't have a valid ID on them. And their country, particularly Venezuela, is not very good about giving them a new ID, even if they go apply for a passport. And so then that becomes a sticking point... a person just simply can't prove they are who they are," Jiménez said.
If migrants can make it through all that, there's still a barrier to get the physical work permit.
Migrants without a home, which many are when they first arrive in Denver, have to list an address where they can receive their work permit if they're approved.
To make it through this entire process, many nonprofits are trying to offer services to help migrants navigate the complexities of the system.
"For many of us who are forced to navigate government bureaucracies, it's a headache under the best of circumstances. For folks who are recent arrivals to the United States, there's no reason why any of them would know these processes exist, and certainly not how to navigate them successfully," García Hernández said.
This creates ideal conditions for scammers to lure migrants in with promises of false services on social media where they end up stealing money from this vulnerable population in the process, according to Jiménez.
"That's one of the things that I think the Biden administration could put some energy and some money into doing — making sure that people who are arriving in the United States know what the basic lay of the landscape when it comes to the legal rights and options that exist," García Hernández said. "And then figuring out, how do we hire enough people and make enough resources available in communities like Denver and others, to make sure that those folks can go to a place where there are going to be trained individuals to help folks figure out — are you actually entitled to work authorization? Are you actually entitled to asylum or parole or some other legal rights? And how do you actually put together the documents and the application that's necessary to get that benefit?"
What can be done?
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has called on the federal government for weeks to speed up the work authorization process for these newcomers as they wait to have their asylum cases heard in court.
"That's the kind of thing that the Biden administration actually cannot change on their own. Because Congress enacted that law, it will take Congress to undo that law," García Hernández said.
The reason Johnston is calling on the president and Congress to act is because there are hefty penalties for anyone who employs someone without the official work permit granted through the federal government.
It could cost up to $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for a company that employs a migrant who doesn't have the proper worker authorization, Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for Denver Human Services said.
However, technically, cities and states might be able to help employ migrants, according to García Hernández. But that's rare.
"Private employers cannot hire people who don't have a work authorization. There's some question about whether cities like Denver could actually hire folks regardless of whether they have work authorization. The only large institution that is currently thinking about doing this is the University of California system," García Hernández said.
The law doesn't explicitly say that the work permit requirement applies to government agencies who may be hiring, according to García Hernández.
"So instead of simply banging on the doors of the White House, and having press conferences, where elected officials complain about how slow the Biden administration is processing work authorization applications, it's possible that the city could also be hiring some of these folks," García Hernández said.
While migrants may not legally be allowed to work for private businesses just yet without federal approval, the loophole could theoretically be migrants work for the City of Denver government, for example.
"The question is whether there's the political will in Denver to push the boundaries of federal law in a way that promotes a more welcoming environment for migrants," García Hernández said.
