The US Department of Homeland Security cleared the way for more Venezuelan migrants to get work permits Wednesday by expanding Temporary Protected Status to refugee seekers who fled the tumultuous country for the US.

An 18-month extension to the program, as well as the new inclusion of more recent border-crossers, was announced by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas after New York officials pleaded with President Biden for help addressing the migrant crisis in NYC.

Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke to Biden about the crisis and pointed to work authorization as a potential solution Tuesday night, while the president visited the Big Apple this week.

“After my productive conversation with President Biden last night, I’m grateful the federal government has acted so speedily to grant one of our top priorities: providing Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelan asylum seekers and migrants who have already arrived in this country,” she said in a statement.

“There’s more work to do as we address this crisis, but the state of New York is prepared to immediately begin the process of signing people up for work authorization and getting them into jobs so they can become self-sufficient.”

Hochul said she had been pushing for more than a year to get Venezuelans the temporary protective status that allows them to work in the US.

She said the working migrants will earn money to begin living independently instead of relying on the shelter system — clearing up resources as the city struggles to find and pay for emergency housing for the continuous influx of asylum seekers.

“Work authorization is the way out of the migrant crisis,” Hochul said. “Individuals who achieve legal work status will be able to exit the shelter system, find work opportunities and get their shot at the American Dream.”

Following DHS’s announcement, the governor unveiled a major initiative Wednesday night that will surge state resources and personnel to help eligible migrants file for work authorization and connect them to employers. More than 70 staffers from 16 different state agencies will be assigned to the effort.

Another 50 DHS employees have been placed in New York to process migrants’ work authorization applications.

Around 41% of the migrants who have come to NYC from the southern border are Venezuelans, according to City Hall data released last month. More than 110,000 migrants in total have entered New York City since spring 2022.

Mayor Eric Adams, who has also pushed for Venezuelans to get temporary status, said the White House informed him of the changes to the designation Wednesday night. He thanked Biden one day after the president failed to meet with him to discuss the migrant crisis’ crippling effect on NYC.

“Our administration and our partners across the city have led the calls to ‘Let Them Work,’ so I want to thank President Biden for hearing our entire coalition, including our hard-working congressional delegation, and taking this important step that will bring hope to the thousands of Venezuelan asylum seekers currently in our care who will now be immediately eligible for Temporary Protected Status,” Adams said in a statement.

DHS’s expansion of the program grants the status to Venezuelan nationals who were in the US before July 31, 2023. It previously only applied to those who arrived before March 2021.

“It is critical that Venezuelans understand that those who have arrived here after July 31, 2023, are not eligible for such protection, and instead will be removed when they are found to not have a legal basis to stay,” Mayorkas said.

He said the extension and expansion of the protective status was warranted “due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Venezuela that prevent individuals from safely returning.”

The status also protects eligible migrants from deportation.