Many recently arrived Venezuelans celebrated when the Biden administration granted those who were eligible the chance to work in the U.S. Consuelo Martinez said she felt deep sadness.
Martinez, originally from Mexico, and her husband have worked in the U.S. for 27 years, without permission and in constant fear of being caught by immigration officers, she said by phone in Spanish.
“When I heard that my Venezuelan brothers and sisters, the president, overnight, gave them permission to work, I became sad. I became very, very sad,” Martinez said. “I cried. I cried because I am 27 years waiting in line, 27 years, so that they can give me permission to work, so I can go to work without fear, I can work calmly, without stress.”
Martinez had traveled to Washington from Chicago on Tuesday along with hundreds of other immigrants, employers and advocates. Organizers said 2,219 people were bused in. They marched to Lafayette Square across from the White House to ask President Joe Biden to use his executive powers to give them a chance to get work permits, as well.
The rally comes amid a lack of any congressional legislation on immigration and decades of Republican legal challenges to expanding work permits and deferred deportations for immigrants who lack legal status but have spent decades living and working in the U.S.
In September, Biden extended Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans here since before July 31, which authorizes them to work.
Biden was responding to pressure from New York and other cities that have been struggling to house, clothe and feed the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants who have left political and economic upheaval in their country.
While the action opened a relief valve for cities and immigration advocates, it left undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for a long time — and who have been hoping for Congress or one of multiple presidents to give them a similar privilege — to wonder, what about us?
But…
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