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Bloomberg Touts Immigration Reform as Key to Economic Recovery

Posted December 14, 2010 by Ted Hesson
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

Bloomberg at a 2009 event.

Back in January, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg began amassing a coalition of prominent business leaders to support immigration reform. Last Friday, he reiterated the need for reform during a speech at the New York Stock Exchange.

The New York Times reports:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg told his business-world peers on Friday that if they cared about their city and, more pointedly, their companies, they needed to support his call for comprehensive immigration reform. The economy is suffering because of Washington’s failure to change restrictive policies, he said, and talented entrepreneurs were taking their ideas to other countries that are only too happy to host them.

“If we keep the best and the brightest out of this country, all the next big things will happen outside this country,” the mayor said during a speech at the New York Stock Exchange.

Mr. Bloomberg called it the responsibility of the pinstriped titans gathered before him — Rupert Murdoch, Lloyd C. Blankfein, Kenneth I. Chenault of American Express — to bring common sense and economic experience to the immigration debate, which he called the most important issue facing the country.

“You look at people who say, ‘Oh, no, immigrants are going to kill us,’ and you wonder — they haven’t read history,” the mayor said. “They don’t understand anything about business. And it’s up to us educate them.”

Mr. Bloomberg has been making the economic argument for immigration reform for months, and his pitch clearly resonated Friday at the annual meeting of the Partnership for New York City, a leading business group. He has created a national task force of mayors and chief executives — many of whom were in the room — to call for a path to legalization for the millions of illegal immigrants who are already in the United States, and for a loosening of green card and visa restrictions to allow for more educated and highly skilled immigrants to move here.

Since his third term began in January, Mr. Bloomberg has been seeking to insert himself more forcefully into the national debate over a number of issues, including immigration, fueling renewed speculation about his political ambitions. He has repeatedly denied that he will run for president in 2012.

Presidential run aside, Bloomberg’s campaign for reform has brought media attention to the ties between immigration and the economy.

Meanwhile, a group of businesspeople in Arizona are fighting a law that imposes sanctions on businesses that hire undocumented workers, and the case was heard in the U.S. Supreme Court on December 8.

For more details, visit Feet in 2 Worlds.

Tags : american express, bloomberg, business, feet in 2 worlds, immigration reform, new york stock exchange, new york times, sam dolnick

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