New York Needs Workers. They’re Waiting On the Sidelines

On a recent morning on a sleepy street in Jackson Heights, Queens, more than 20 men and women swarmed a dark blue van in hopes of getting some work for the day. Four managed to get in.

The would-be workers, most of whom were men in their 20s and 30s, are part of a growing pool of migrants that’s flooding New York City, where thousands of asylum seekers arrive each week. Desperate for work but bound by US immigration law from doing so in any legal or stable fashion, they’re often relegated to competing with other undocumented workers for the odd day job, or enterprising ...