By Bill Parry
Queens has become such a bastion of immigrant rights in recent years that when President Obama issued his executive order, the borough’s only Republican elected official, City Councilman Eric Ulrich (D-Ozone Park), did not release a statement. Others did.
City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst), who represents the most immigrant-dense district in New York City, said, “The families in my community — the heart of the immigrant community in New York — that have worked long and hard deserve this opportunity to lead respectable lives free of the fear of deportation.”
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing), the daughter of immigrants, said, “I welcome the president’s broad and bold step to improve the nation’s broken immigration system. Of course, i prefer Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform; but with the GOP leadership still refusing to act, the president had no choice but to use his authority; the same authority have also used on immigration. Nearly a year-and-a-half after the Senate approved bipartisan legislation to overhaul our country’s immigration laws, the bill continues to hang in limbo. Families remain separated, people continue to live in the shadows and progress is virtually non-existent.”
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica) also applauded Obama’s decision. He said Obama’s executive action “is an important step towards fixing our decades-old broken immigration system.”
The congressman said immigration reform “will not only provide relief and clarity to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are living as second-class citizens, but it will create jobs, strengthen small business, fuel innovation, reduce the deficit, and energize the economy.”
Two lead sponsors of the Dream Act, that failed to pass in Albany in March and would have allowed state financial aid programs to cover the college children of undocumented immigrants, added their support for Obama’s announcement.
“The good news is that millions of upstanding, hardworking undocumented immigrants will now be able to continue contributing to our economy without having to live in fear of deportation,” state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) said. “The bad news is that millions of other upstanding, hardworking, undocumented immigrants will remain in the shadows of our economy and society.”
State Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) added, “As a lawmaker who represents a part of New York with a large immigrant community, I am intimately aware of how deportation rips families apart and tears our social fabric. Regularizing the status of undocumented immigrants who have deep economic and familial ties to the U.S. will allow our economy, our law enforcement and our society to function better.”
When Mayor Bill de Blasio last week signed two laws that limit the city’s cooperation with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations, he came to Corona. Two weeks later he is planning to bring at least 20 of the nation’s mayors together for a summit at Gracie Mansion Dec. 8 to determine how to move forward and implement the president’s executive order.
“This summit will offer a unique opportunity for mayors of many of our nation’s progressive cities to restate our leadership and responsibility on this decisive issue,” de Blasio said, adding that the mayors will develop “an unbeatable master plan that truly prepares our localities for swift implementation of changes and also advocates for further reforms from the municipal level all the way of to Washington.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.
