Posted on June 25, 2010

NYC Mayor, CEOs Lobby for Immigration Reform

Sara Kugler Frazier, Phoenix Republic, June 24, 2010

Chief executives of several major corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Disney and News Corp., are joining Mayor Michael Bloomberg to form a coalition advocating for immigration reform–including a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants now in the United States.

The group includes several other big-city mayors and calls itself the Partnership for a New American Economy. It seeks to reframe immigration reform as the solution to repairing and stimulating the economy.

Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., appeared together Thursday on Fox News to discuss the effort.

{snip}

The CEOs said Thursday in statements that their companies–and the nation–depend on immigrants.

{snip}

He [Blomberg] has recently taken up the fight again, declaring this week that U.S. immigration policy “is national suicide.”

“If you want to solve the unemployment prob in America, you have to open the doors to immigrants who will come here, create businesses, because when the tide comes in, everybody’s boat rises,” Bloomberg told reporters Thursday. “We need more immigrants, not less.”

The group’s main immigration goals are to secure the borders, develop an easy system for employers to verify work eligibility, hold companies accountable for breaking the laws and improve the use of technology to prevent illegal immigration.

The group also wants more opportunities for immigrants to join the U.S. work force and a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants.

{snip}