New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, and Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp. participate in a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing about immigration on Thursday in Washington. The subcommittee is hearing testimony on “The Role of Immigration in Strengthening America’s Economy.” (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON—New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Thursday urged members of Congress to reach across party lines in order to fix “our broken system of immigration.”
Testifying before a House immigration subcommittee, Bloomberg said politicians in Washington should focus on the economics of the issue, rather than the emotions.
“Since 1990, cities with the largest increase in immigrant workers have had the fastest economic growth,” he said.
Bloomberg said that New York has fared better economically than other U.S. cities due in part to its large immigrant population.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation and an immigrant himself, urged Congress to pass immigration reform in order to lead immigrants out of a “shadow economy” and help them become taxpayers.
“America is desperately in need of improving our country’s human capital,” Murdoch said.
Still, both men argued that immigration reform must be matched with substantial efforts to beef up border security and provide tools for employers to ensure they are hiring workers who can work legally.
“We can, and should, add more people, technology and resources to ensuring that we have control over who comes in to this country,” Murdoch said.
There are approximately 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, many of whom are unskilled workers who fill jobs in the lower echelons of the labor market. Conservatives and liberals are split on how to deal with immigrants already in the U.S. – some right-wing members of Congress advocate deportation while some left-wing members lobby for a path to citizenship.
Until comprehensive immigration reform is enacted, Bloomberg said supply-and-demand will ensure the number of undocumented immigrants continues to rise.
“We have 11 or 12 million undocumented workers because there are jobs that are going unfilled,” Bloomberg said.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said that the issue of undocumented workers is a legal, rather than economic, issue.
“Whatever the analysis of the economics, we have the rule of law,” Rep. King said. “I am certainly not going to set aside the rule of law for the economics.”
Bloomberg and Murdoch recently created a Partnership for a New American Economy, a group comprised of mayors and business leaders to help address the issue of immigration as it relates to the business community.
Bloomberg was especially frustrated with the lack of progress Congress has made on immigration reform.
“What frustrates the American public is that we can’t understand why you guys complain about illegal immigrants coming over the border but you don’t do anything about it,” he said.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., lamented the notion that the national debate over immigration reform has degraded to a point where many skilled workers are discouraged from attempting to immigrate to the United States.
“Our national dialogue sounds as though we don’t want people to come here,” he said.
As a nation built by immigrants, Bloomberg worried that there is a chance of losing America’s reputation as the “land of the free, home of the brave.”
“We are not attractive to an awful lot of people who are afraid to come here,” he said.
“We educate them here – and then, in effect, tell them to take that knowledge to start jobs in other countries,” he added. “That just makes no sense whatsoever.”