Mayor Adams: Let’s turn Abbott’s cheap political stunt into NYC strategic asset
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been renting buses and sending immigrants from Texas to East Coast cities because he sees immigration as a problem, not an asset. Businesses across the country posted distress signs in their windows on Friday as the federal government announced more than 500,000 jobs were added in July and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent.Mayor Eric Adams should work with the federal government to convene a task force to create a Immigration Working Group, and figure out how to obtain emergency work papers for newcomers and place them in government and private sector jobs in New York. I know there are some rules and red tape to overcome to make this work, but let’s come up with a workaround that will enable newcomers to start work in New York. In fact, since both Arizona and Texas are sending immigrants to Washington D.C. and New York State, we should also get together with D.C. and other cities interested in putting newcomers to work.
in the most recent New York Times In an article on Abbott’s cynical political stunt, Andy Newman and Raul Verkis report:
“Since April, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has Transport newly arrived asylum seekers To immigration-friendly Democratic cities on the East Coast to try to pressure the Biden administration for a crackdown at the border. Mr. Abbott’s press office said the bus that arrived in Manhattan on Friday and left Eagle Pass on Wednesday afternoon was carrying “the first immigrants to take the bus from Texas to New York City… . Abbott. Adams Mr. Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Mr. Texas, said the Texas governor “continues to use humans as political pawns that are disgusting,” wrote on twitterMr Levy added that the city would continue to “welcome asylum seekers” but would need support from the federal government.
Mayor Adams was right that Abbott was a cynical, mean-spirited political hacker who was more interested in political power than public service, but the mayor fell into Abbott’s political trap by seeing immigration as a problem rather than an asset.exist Works by Andy Newman and Raul Welchesthey profiled several immigrants who took the bus from Texas:
“Although some migrants who arrived in a chartered vehicle from Texas on Friday entered the shelter system, Mr. Rodriguez and his friend Pablo Gutiérrez, who was traveling with him, knew New York Someone could give them a place to stay. “We have a friend who is coming here to pick us up,” said Mr. Rodriguez, 38, an unemployed bricklayer in Maracaibo, on Venezuela’s northwest coast. He said he left home on June 10 with $100 in his pocket… Like other immigrants, Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Gutierrez said they had agreed to go to New York because it was free. Say there are a lot of jobs in New York,” said Mr. Gutierrez, 30, a chef in his hometown.
Here’s a news flash: People don’t leave their homes thousands of miles to sleep in homeless shelters or beg on the street; they emigrate in search of a better life. Almost everyone wants to work. White supremacist “replacement theory” is ridiculous, because who exactly are immigrants “replacing”? descendants of immigrants. Almost every American is from somewhere else. Some came reluctantly in chains.The U.S. population of 330 million includes 5.2 million Native Americans; The other 98% of us are immigrants or immigrants who died. Both we and our ancestors were foreigners, oppressed at home, willing to travel thousands of miles to find work and build a new life in a new world. As mentioned above, some were stolen from their homes and sold here as slaves. Still, if we were really interested in making America great again, we would reopen mass legal immigration, because that’s what that “greatness” is based on.
I personally think immigration bashing. Like most Americans, my family hasn’t been here for long. About a century ago, my grandparents Ben and Rose Cohen and Irving and Florence Balas came to America from Eastern Europe. It’s been a daunting and risky journey. like most early 20sth century immigrants, they already have some families here. But if they stayed in Europe, they could have been among the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust. In the New York metropolitan area, my grandparents discovered economic opportunity and were less religiously intolerant than the places they fled. It wasn’t always pretty, and New York City’s welcome has always been one of harsh love. But Ben got a job as a baker, and Irving started a deli and eventually got into real estate. My grandparents will be raising eight children together, and they and their kids have all managed to earn their American Dream.
Life for new immigrants to America is never smooth sailing, but the work ethic we respect here stems from their willingness to make sacrifices for their children. This hunger and spirit can be found in most immigrants today. The economic vitality of New York City is built on immigration. Nearly 40 percent of those living here were born in other countries. Add in tourists, students from abroad, and illegal immigrants, and I assure you, those of us who were born here are definitely in the minority.So let’s carry on our immigrant tradition. Let’s welcome those who are useless in Texas. Let’s get creative and empower them to work legally, help these people find jobs, enroll their children in school, build some temporary housing, and mobilize the resources these newcomers need to achieve the American Dream.
Ever since Donald Trump took the escalator to the lobby of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president, we have been affected by the relentless xenophobia on the political right. Instead of accurately portraying immigrants as hard-working, struggling families seeking a better life, they are portrayed as drug-trafficking criminals and rapists. The data show that the per capita crime rate of native-born Americans is much higher than that of immigrants. Without New York’s immigrant labor, there would be no construction, restaurants, hospital workers, delivery men, or anything else. Diversity is not a theory or a desire here, but a way of life. Part of this diversity is our international workforce.
Instead of looking at Abbott’s cynicism like he did, let’s turn things around and thank him for his gift. Maybe we can also attract some of his businesses that may not be able to fill staff vacancies. We have a lot of people here, fewer guns, no restrictions on women’s ability to control their bodies, public transportation that helps newly settled workers get to work even if they can’t afford a car, and business traditions. Yes, Texas has low taxes and little regulation, but it’s ruled by a rude political opportunist. Anyway, if we can’t get Texas businesses, we take their immigration. Let these aspiring Americans help our businesses thrive and show Texas how America works.
