Sen. Elizabeth Warren calls delay in migrant work permits a 'bureaucracy problem'
BOSTON – Last week, Gov. Maura Healey called on the federal government to issue expedited work authorizations to allow newly arriving migrants to more quickly find jobs and start earning a living. What exactly is causing such a slowdown in the process?
WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller talked to Sen. Elizabeth Warren about the challenges for migrants who want to begin working but can't because the process to get permits can take several months.
Warren said she has spoken U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas about the nationwide issue.
"It is a bureaucracy problem. We have people here in Massachusetts who desperately want to work, who are saying 'I'll get up early, I'll stay up late, put me to work,'" Warren said. "They want to go to work because they want to earn that money, they want to support themselves, they want to support their families. Frankly they want to get out of their shelters and they want to get in to apartments, into regular housing hat they can count on over the long term. Matching that, we have employers desperate for those workers who are saying 'I need them, I'll send a van over to pick them up. Can they start now?'"
Warren said Mayorkas told her the slowdowns are due to the department's own budgeting issues and how many people they can allocate to work permits.
"We could make lives better, we could make our economy better if we could just get the paperwork freed up and let people get back to work," Warren said.
Keller @ Large: Sen. Elizabeth Warren on work permits