New York officials continue to put pressure on the Biden administration to fast-track work permits for thousands of asylum seekers and migrants who want to work.

One New York business is eager to hire new employees once they secure the proper paperwork.

Bryan Quinn runs a plant nursery and landscape construction company in the Hudson Valley. He says business is taking off. And he needs people who are ready to roll up their sleeves and work, like many newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers in the Hudson Valley.

“To be honest, like our business is really kind of exploding,” said Quinn, founder of One Nature Plant Nursery. “And it’s really hard to find people that have a solid horticultural background, knowledge. So the more job applicants we can get, the better.”

Migrants that recently arrived in the Hudson Vsalley have said they’re driven and want to make an honest living.

Felipe Cortez arrived from South America by way of the city. He said he was looking for honest work. Cortez, who speaks Spanish, said he wants to participate in society, to get ahead and for the community to know he and the others aren’t bad people. All qualities Quinn says he looks for when hiring people.

“I just find working with people from other countries who are new here, often very motivated,” Quinn said. “And have really good international perspective that they could bring to our business, help with our diversity.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul says thousands of jobs need to be filled throughout New York state, including 5,000 farm jobs.

For migrants, there are barriers to finding work. The law, as it’s written now, says asylum seekers must wait about six months in order to get work authorization after filing an application. They often end up waiting months for approval because of a backlog of pending asylum cases.

Last month, Hochul publicly called on President Joe Biden to waive the waiting period and fast-track work authorization. Advocates argue the more-than-six-month wait can be detrimental and harmful. They say the backlog fuels an underground economy that makes this group of desperate people vulnerable to exploitation and bad actors.

According to the Center for American Progress, millions of undocumented immigrants make up an essential part of the U.S. workforce, including in the farming and construction industries.

Quinn does everything by the books at his company. The starting pay is $20 an hour for working the earth, generally doing jobs he says many Americans would need to be trained on or don’t want to do.

Quinn, who supports workers’ rights, said having a clear and legal pathway for migrants and asylum seekers to work would level the playing field.

“If we could have a more transparent system where everybody could qualify to work everywhere, it would help our business,” he said.

And it wouldn’t just be a win for his business. Quinn said other small businesses in the Hudson Valley are also looking to hire people who want to do the work.

“It would just like be so good to have more options for folks, migrant folks,” Quinn said. “To have work opportunities that are available to them, legitimate, that they can build a family around, that they can carve a new life for themselves here.”

All of Quinn’s employees qualify for unemployment and workers compensation because treating employees with respect, he says, is a central part of his company’s mission.