House Democrats representing New York City were confronted by right-wing protestors at a press conference Friday to address Manhattan’s migrant crisis.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Adriano Espaillat spoke Friday morning to push for a pathway for migrants to more easily start working as one way to ease the social burden of the city’s influx of migrants.
They were met with a loud crowd and were forced to shout.
“They are prevented from getting jobs, they are prevented from employment and that is part of the strain on our public systems,” Ocasio-Cortez said over protestors. “So the faster that folks can access the work that they are asking for, legally, the better we can solve this problem.”
The progressive is also asking for increased federal resources to New York and other cities and municipalities dealing with a migrant crisis. And she said Venezuelans, the largest group of migrants entering the city, need an extension of temporary protective status.
Protesters held signs that read “Americans First: vetted and legal migrants only,” and chanted “send them back.”
Espaillat, the first formerly undocumented member of Congress, in response to the protestors, said, “the American Dream will not be bullied into submission today.”
As of Aug. 5, Response for Venezuelans, a collaboration between the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, reported more than 7 million refugees and migrants have left Venezuela.
More than 112,000 migrants have traveled to New York City since spring 2022, The Associated Press reported.