Mayor Michael Bloomberg took his pro-immigration views on the road on Tuesday to public forums in Chicago and Boston, where he urged President Obama and Mitt Romney to make immigration a central issue in the presidential campaign.
Mr. Bloomberg, never shy about pressing his priorities on others, deserves credit for hammering on this one. At a time when politicians try to outdo one another for harshness on immigration, he was pushing another approach — one that is more generous with visas and puts the 11 million or so illegal immigrants in the United States on a path to citizenship for the sake of national prosperity.
“There is no way to help the economy as quickly and as cost-free as opening the borders to create jobs and create business,” he said in Chicago. He has often called the alternative — tighter immigration restrictions and mass deportation — a form of “national suicide.” [Read More]