Andrew Friedman

Where are Chuck and Hilary on Immigration?

It is a strange day when a Republican Senator from Arizona has to roll into New York City for us to hear a Senate perspective on immigration reform.

DMI's Elana Levin already wrote an excellent post earlier this week that described McCain's appearance at a immigration forum at SEIU Local 32BJ earlier this week. I wanted to build on her post by chastising New York State's Senators for a near total failure of leadership on this issue.

Senator Schumer is omnipresent on the nightly news, but he has been largely absent from the mportant national debate about immigration reform.

Senator Clinton has been spending more time dissing Karl Rove than engaging in meaningful dialogue about the central political issue of our day for millions of New Yorkers.

Norman Eng, of the New York Immigration Coalition, has written a quick primer for the Gotham Gazette about the major proposals for immigration reform that are being discussed in Washington. None of the proposals are perfect. None of them are even close. Eng, though, articulates a few common sense values that we can all use to evaluate different proposals and different approaches to immigration reform.

Immigration policy should promote:

1) Legalization and a path to citizenship for immigrants who are already here;
2) Family reunification;
3) Full labor rights for immigrant workers; and
4) Targeted enforcement, emphasis on targeted.

Hopefully, New York State's Senators will keep these principles in mind when they finally decide to jump into the fray on this issue of primary importance for so many New Yorkers.

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Posted at 10:16 AM, Mar 02, 2006 in Immigration
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