PARALLEL UNIVERSE: New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Way Off Base Re: Illegal Immigrants
By David M. KinchenEditor, Huntington News Network
Hinton, WV (HNN) – Many people wonder what kind of Republican New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is. Judging from his recent testimony on immigration reform, I’d say he’s a Bush Republican. Like the leader of the Republican Party, President Bush, Bloomberg has never met an illegal alien he didn’t like.
Bloomberg was in Philadelphia on July 5, 2006, testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform.
Hizzoner criticized the Senate's immigration legislation, saying there are problems with a proposed guest worker program.
The billionaire mayor, who would never be personally affected by an illegal taking away his job, also lashed out at a bill favored by house Republicans that would deport the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Bloomberg calls it "pure fantasy," and says it would devastate the economy.
"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders or overstaying their visas and our businesses broke the law by employing them, our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported. The same holds true for the nation," he testified at the hearing.
I’ve checked other sources, reliable economists, and they’ve said that illegals in The Big Apple account for about 3 percent of the city’s economic output – hardly enough to make the city of more than 8 million people “a shell of itself” should the illegals leave.
Megabucks Mike got several things right in calling on lawmakers to hold businesses accountable for violating laws: “By winking at businesses that hired illegal immigrants, the federal government sent a clear signal to those in other countries: ‘If you can make it into our country, you'll have no trouble qualifying for employment,’" said Bloomberg.
Bloomberg voiced his support for a DNA or fingerprint database to track and verify the identity of legal U.S. workers favored by several senators. He also supports an increase in work visas and opposes suggestions of mass deportations.
But his statement that “we need lots of immigrants to come into this country every year…Our birth rate is not high enough to sustain the growth in the economy that we need " is way off base. There is plenty of evidence, mostly anecdotal, that suggests that employers in much of the country are addicted to illegal workers, preferring them to American citizens.
Too, given the high cost of living and the inability of many retirees to keep up with such incidentals as skyrocketing heating costs and property tax increases, there are plenty of retired workers ready, willing and able to take on employment. When General Motors becomes part of Nissan-Renault – something I believe will happen sooner rather than later – there will be plenty of “surplus” GM workers once Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of N-R, gets done with GM. (Here’s some background on this possibility: 89-year-old Las Vegas investor Kirk Kerkorian – whose company owns a lot of GM stock -- recently urged GM to consider a partnership with Nissan Motor Corporation and Renault. Carlos Ghosn has expressed interest in acquiring up to 20% stake in General Motors Corporation at a dinner with Kirk Kerkorian that took place around June 20th, 2006. Kerkorian is hoping that Ghosn can eventually turn GM into a profitable automaker.).
Jim Kouri, a vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, recently reported in the New Media Alliance (www.thenewma.org) that Hizzoner shares a disturbing characteristic with many Democrats in urging non-citizens to vote – something no country permits. Bloomberg opposes voter ID verification. Kouri says this is just what “left-wing” Democrats are doing to increase their voter base. He quotes political analyst Mike Baker: “This is exactly the kind of thing that has been happening across the country. Illegal aliens are registered by left-wing activists – people who have no idea what they’re being told.”