Bloomberg, Major CEOs Lobby for Immigration Reform

NEW YORK (AP/ 1010 WINS) -- 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.

"We're just going to keep the pressure on the congressmen,'' Murdoch said. "I think we can show to the public the benefits of having migrants and the jobs that go with them.''

Bloomberg added, "Somebody has to lead and explain to the country why this is in our interest.''

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

"It's our great strength as a nation, and it's also critical for continued economic growth,'' Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Robert Iger said in a statement. "To remain competitive in the 21st century, we need effective immigration reform that invites people to contribute to our shared success by building their own American dream.''

The group says it intends to make its point to policymakers by "publishing studies, conducting polls, convening forums and paying for public education campaigns.''

The tactics are similar to those used by Bloomberg's coalition of mayors who support gun control.

Bloomberg has for years criticized the federal government for its immigration laws, proposing in 2006 a plan that would have established a DNA or fingerprint database to track and verify all legal U.S. workers.

The billionaire mayor, a former CEO of the financial information company Bloomberg LP, also said at the time that all 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States should be given the opportunity for citizenship, saying that deporting them is impossible and would devastate the economy.

Lawmakers who wanted to deport all illegal immigrants were "living in a fantasy world,'' he said.

He has recently taken up the fight again, declaring this week that U.S. immigration policy "is national suicide.''

"I can't think of any ways to destroy this country quite as direct and impactful as our immigration policy,'' he said Wednesday. "We educate the best and the brightest, and then we don't give them a green card.''

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.

Bloomberg spokesman Jason Post said no money has been spent on the effort yet, and he could not say whether the group will be a standard nonprofit, a political action committee or a group known as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, which can operate outside the more strict limits governing political action committees.

The business leaders in the coalition employ more than 650,000 people and make more than $220 billion in annual sales, combined.

The effort marks Bloomberg's return to national issues after he spent 2009 campaigning for a third term, focusing mostly on New York City's municipal concerns.

The Republican-turned-independent spent about two years testing the waters for an independent 2008 presidential run, but ultimately he gave up the idea.

By recruiting business leaders and mayors into a national-issue coalition, he is highlighting both of his backgrounds in running a city and running a business, which could be seen as an early move to dust off his presidential aspirations. (1 image)

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#1. To: All, *Escape From ElPee* (#0)

by William Gheen
President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC ALIPAC
www.alipac.us

June 24, 2010

A big question has been answered for those of us wondering why very few of the leaders of organizations fighting against illegal immigration are on Fox News anymore.

The last time I was on FOX was on Sunday morning at 8am. Before that, a little over a year ago I criticized John McCain's support for Amnesty and pointed out that the man countering my statements in support of immigration enforcement, Francisco Hernandez, was the brother of the open borders amnesty zealot Juan Hernandez who was serving as McCain's Hispanic Outreach Coordinator on McCain's Presidential campaign. I was only invited back once after that and the weekend staff that invited me probably got grilled out for having me on.

William Gheen Vs. Francisco Hernandez (Last prime-time appearance on Fox)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz-nVW3Zitk

Nope, you will rarely if ever see me, Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, Dan Stein of FAIR, or any of the significant immigration enforcement and border security groups on Fox anymore.

You do see Carl Rove, Mike Huckabee, and US Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain on Fox all the time and each of them supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform Amnesty for illegal immigrants that would turn illegal aliens into voters and thus destroy any peaceful political hope for future border or immigration enforcement in America.

So why have the Amnesty sellouts been given free reign at FOX NEWS with almost no significant representation for the organization leaders and elected officials that represent the 80% of Americans who want immigration and border enforcement instead of Amnesty?

It appears we have our answer as the Associated Press is reporting today (June 24, 2010) in their article titled 'NYC mayor, major CEOs lobby for immigration reform' that FOX NEWS and News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch has appeared with the billionaire liberal mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, to ask lawmakers in Washington to pass Amnesty.

U.S. Constitution - Article IV, Section 4: NO BORDERS + NO LAWS = NO COUNTRY

HAPPY2BME-4UM  posted on  2010-06-24   15:55:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply