Opinion: Let Asylum Seekers Work

This article was originally published by City Limits.

I came to New York five years ago from Venezuela. I used to run a nonprofit helping political prisoners, and then the government asked me to go to court. Knowing the experience of many of the people I had helped, I realized what that meant.

I had been outspoken about the dictatorship in my country, and they wanted to put me in prison. It’s a universal human reaction to say, “I don’t want to be a political prisoner in a Venezuelan prison.” Particularly if like me you had seen the conditions inside and knew how they would treat you. That’s when I filed my asylum claim in the United States.

Now I live in New Jersey where I had to start from nothing. The hardest thing of all was that I wasn’t allowed to work. Because of a statutory requirement that asylum seekers wait 180 days for a work permit, it was six months before I was granted work authorization.

That was a very challenging time. Because I couldn’t legally work, I had to rely on government support. Some people told me I should get a fake identification or skirt the law, but I knew that wasn’t the right choice. I am lucky I didn’t end up in an exploitative situation. All I wanted was  to work, but the law did not allow it.

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