Mayor Bloomberg pushes for immigration reform ... so models will have easier time get

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

Here's one reason why Mayor Bloomberg wants immigration reform: It'll make it easier for beautiful women to roam the city.

Hizzoner boasted on his radio show Friday that the leaders of 11 major fashion houses have pledged their support to his efforts to fix the nation's immigration policy.

Without that change, the hottest models might start strutting their stuff on catwalks far from New York, Bloomberg warned.

"What's happened is that some fashion people can't get their models over here," Bloomberg said. "So they start to cancel some of their photo shoots, because they can't get models in or the cameras."

The call to open the nation's shores to the hottest foreign babes echoed a proposal made by former rival Rep. Anthony Weiner two years ago.

That bill was roundly mocked in the press, and Weiner's team charged it was one of many negative stories dug up and shopped around by Bloomberg's opposition research squad.

Using Twitter, Weiner sarcastically applauded Bloomberg's apparent change of heart.

"Great minds think alike...eventually," Weiner tweeted at the mayor's account.

Weiner also argued that his pro-models stance was about jobs, a sentiment Bloomberg echoed on Friday, a day after the conclusion of Fashion Week.

"What's happening for fashion business is that they generate $9 billion wages locally and $1.7 billion in tax revenue," Bloomberg said on WOR. "This week is an enormous thing."

The fashion industry employs 165,000 people in the five boroughs and accounts for 31% of the city's manufacturing - a vital part of the New York's economy, Hizzoner said.

"We have double the number of fashion houses than any places in the world," he said, "but we could lose this business very easily. We just have to fix immigration."

Designers like Diane von Furstenberg and Oscar de la Renta, and the heads of luxury stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Brooks Brothers have joined the call for reform, Bloomberg said.

Weiner's plan, introduced in 2008 when he seemed a likely challenger to Bloomberg's reelection efforts, would have made it easier for models to obtain visas to work in the U.S.

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This is like the 24th time I've heard about Bloomberg calling for immigration reform within the last few years. Nobody is listening. Time for plan B because this is not happening any time soon.

Driver license in NY = 1/4 of the Dream come true

http://mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?o...5986C82710CEB1

About the Partnership:

The Partnership for a New American Economy (www.RenewOurEconomy.org) brings together a bipartisan group of over 150 business leaders from all sectors of the economy and mayors from all parts of the country to make the economic case for immigration reform. The Partnership believes that to compete in the 21st-century global economy, America needs an immigration system that secures our borders and attracts and keeps the best, brightest and hardest working from around the world. The Partnership believes that to keep the American economy the most competitive in the world, Washington needs to develop a smarter immigration strategy.

The Partnership’s Co-Chairs are Steven A. Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation; Robert Iger, President and CEO, Walt Disney Co.; J.W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Inc.; Jim McNerney, Chairman, President and CEO of Boeing; Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, CEO and Founder of News Corporation; Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York; Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio; Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix; Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia; and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.