The quintessential city of immigrants says no to turning its back on new New Yorkers

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...new_nyers.html

Not in our city.

That's what New Yorkers, from Mayor Bloomberg down to everyday hardworking people, have said to those intent on dehumanizing and persecuting immigrants.

"Our lifeblood is a constant stream of new immigrants to improve our cuisine, our culture, our language and, mainly, our economy," Bloomberg said this week. Hizzoner has promised to throw his weight behind immigration reform during his third term.

Our city said no to 287(g), an unfair and poorly managed program that makes surrogate immigration agents of local authorities. New York, the quintessential city of immigrants, has nothing to do with the federal program, and continues to remain one of the safest places in the country for decent immigrant families.

Launched eight years ago, the program is now operational in 72 U.S. jurisdictions with disastrous results. It is supposed to target undocumented immigrants who are dangerous criminals. But the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, found that - despite repeated assurances to the contrary by President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano - "the program is not targeted primarily or even mostly toward serious offenders."

Actually, the group found half of the program's deportation efforts involve noncitizens - not only undocumented immigrants, but also deportable legal immigrants - whose run-ins with the law have been as petty as traffic offenses.

"Our study highlights the absence of a clear and comprehensive interior immigration strategy," said Randy Capps, the group's Senior Policy Analyst and report co-author.

Such ambiguity is bound to become a huge problem for President Obama's reelection bid, in which Latinos will inevitably play a prominent role. After all, their vote has the potential to swing key states such as Florida, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado.

For Latinos, immigration is a personal matter.

A 2009 poll cited by America's Voice, an immigration reform group, showed that 62% of Latino voters know someone who is undocumented. Also, America's Voice says, millions of Latino U.S. citizens once were undocumented immigrants and know first-hand about the painful and unfair current anti-immigration climate. It's as climate in which bigotry and blatant racism have become valid political postures.

"It will be more difficult to motivate Latino voters to go to the polls in 2012 when they have seen loved ones deported for driving without a taillight, and families in their extended network ripped apart by an administration that promised improvements," America's Voice concludes.

And, we add, as it should be.

The gap between what the Obama administration says and what it does, between rhetoric and reality on immigration enforcement, has taken on almost scandalous proportions.

Despite Obama's promises, nearly 400,000 immigrants - the highest numbers in the country's history - were deported in each of the last two years. That fact certainly will not help him gain the trust of immigrant voters - especially because the MPI study confirms, hundreds of thousands of them had not committed any crimes.

Yet New Yorkers can be proud that, true to its immigrant tradition, the city has said no to the repressive and counterproductive 287(g).

Not in our city.

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Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...#ixzz1CujMjumZ

this is gerat to hear, but i thought i read earlier that they where enforcing this in new york, thank god its not like whats going on in rochester just a couple hours down

Ughh.. rochester...

whats going on in Rochester? forgive me for not knowing....

Another politician talking out of one side of his face while the completion of one of the largest ICE prisons in the country is now fully operational in NY. Deportation are making the city money and he is talking about a love affair with undocumented immigrants. Someone should stand up and say what about that ICE prison. Again don't worry about politicians control what you have control over focus on that alone. Politicians flop around like there blowing in the wind.

rAIDS!!!

I know someone that went into a restuarnt that had ICE inside eating.. she didn't notice ... she is mexican.. its mostly white area... they made a remark like "why would she be eating alone?... later I came into the restuarant as we agreed to meet there.. ICE left... do you think they could of asked for her papers even though she was just ordering food?,, it was not really anywhere near the canada border. its at least more then 200 miles away from the canada border.

my friend, Dominican USC, went up there with his other friend to visit her friends in college and he told me they're mad hostile up there as if they've never seen a dark man before. Needless to say, he vowed on never going back up there again. In NYC law enforcement can't ask you for "papers" but the case might be different upstate. dang.... thank God I would never set foot up there unless It was for a million dollars in cash...

So my best friend and I are in love with New York and plan to move there after college. This just proves once again that this is the right decision.