No end in sight for migrants arriving in NY
(CNN) - To get merely an idea of what many of the people stepping off these border busses in New York City have experienced, just look at the images some are willing to share.
This video was taken by Crisman Urbaez and his partner Anabel Gonzalez earlier this summer.
The young Venezuelan couple kept a video diary during their two-month, ten country journey from Lima, Peru to New York City.
They carried only a few belonging on their back, and occasionally, their six- and nine-year-olds, as they trekked through the infamous Darien Gap, linking South and Central America.
It's a place where the northerly path for many migrants often ends in tragedy, but not for this family.
During the rest of their journey north, they swaddled their dog Max, still a pup at the time, like a baby to sneak him onto busses and into hotels, fearing they would be separated.
But the actual blood, sweat, and tears were all worth it for this moment, as they recount, the day they waded across the Rio Grande and onto U.S. soil for the first time, officially requesting asylum.
After a brief stop in Texas, it was onto a bus, and the three-day drive to New York City where they wait for their asylum cases to be heard.
You see they're among the thousands of recently arrived migrants who have to petition for a work permit after submitting asylum applications.
It's a process that is taking up to a year, according to New York City leaders.
Crisman says he hopes the government can help him be a better provider for his family.
But more than anything else, he's pleading for the federal government to free his hands of the red tape keeping him from working legally.
"Most of the families that I've spoken to they want to get to work. They don't want to stay in shelters, they don't want to contribute to society."
City Immigration Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro, an immigrant himself, echoing calls for a fast-track solution.
"Immigration advocates across the country are calling on the federal government to make it easier and quicker for asylum seekers to obtain their work permits. That's by far the biggest obstacle."
The Urbaez family says they won't risk their asylum cases by working off the books.
They'll have to depend on the city's already strained shelter system until they get the government's greenlight to start living their American Dream.
