Dinah Foley, LMSW, Social Worker, Immigration Practice testified before the New York City Council Committees on Immigration and Small Business on Preparing Asylum Seekers and Migrants for the Workforce.

"For asylum seekers, some form of photo ID is a requirement to apply for an Employment Authorization Document. ID is also needed to attend the biometrics appointment required for an EAD. We have seen instances of the ability to work delayed due to issues accessing IDNYC. The consequences of delaying access to work are expansive– deepening food insecurity and housing instability, preventing access to healthcare and basic hygiene items, and making it harder for people to leave relationships that are harmful to them. BDS strongly supports Int. 216 which would require the City to provide walk-in appointments, additional training for staff, and an appeal of a denial at the time of application."

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"When we last appeared before the Council to discuss IDNYC, DSS was piloting walk-in appointments, but this practice was quickly discontinued as the city was unable to meet the demand for ID appointments. The current process of obtaining an IDNYC appointment through the website is difficult and time consuming. Our staff and clients are often unable to find an appointment through the portal, which is needlessly complicated to use. Appointments difficult to search for in the existing system–one cannot search for the soonest available appointment, but must enter each individual date and time, usually to find that there are no appointments available.

We see the high demand for and interest in IDNYC as an indicator of the program’s success. The program is so important that people are willing to wait in line, sometimes for hours. We urge the City Council to work with MOIA and DSS to develop a walk-in system that meets the needs of the program. Other city and state agencies are able to accommodate walk-ins, and have built systems that provide a blueprint for how IDNYC can create an effective and efficient walk-in program."

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"We urge the City Council to prioritize meeting the needs of our newest neighbors. This should include incorporating future funding for full legal representation for immigrant New Yorkers into the city budget, as opposed to funding the programs through discretionary annual funding. We require baseline funding to give providers the stability to build robust programs that can respond to large influxes of people from other countries."

Read the full text of the testimony here.