Immigration

__Immigration Facts and History__ http://www.castlegarden.org/ [|http://members.tripod.com/~L_Alfano/immig.htm] http://germanroots.home.att.net/ellisisland/nypassengers.html http://www.eiic.org/ http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/immigration/ http://www.rapidimmigration.com/usa/1_eng_immigration_history.html http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Sthist.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/arts/design/17abroad.

New York City, March 10, 2003. Deputy Mayor Walcott’s announcement yesterday that the Mayor Bloomberg Administration would fund an Immigrant Family Literacy Program at $1.8 million was met with a lukewarm response from immigrant community leaders.

“The Immigrant Family Literacy Initiative funded at $1.8 million is a significant victory for immigrant communities who have been seeking funding for English classes, immigration legal services and worker legal services. However, as Mayor Bloomberg’s first and only immigrant funding initiative since he came into office, it dramatically falls short of what is needed both in terms of the dollar amount and in the scope of services it funds,” said Chung-Wha Hong, deputy director of the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella policy and advocacy organization for roughly 150 groups in New York that works for fairness and opportunity for today’s immigrants and refugees.

The lack of City funding for immigrant services has become an increasingly contentious issue across New York’s immigrant communities, particularly since Mayor Bloomberg’s Department of City Planning released The Newest New Yorkers, a report showing a record-high foreign-born population at 2.9 million, constituting 38% of the City’s population. The report also documents how immigrant flows mitigated catastrophic population losses in the past, how immigrants are filling critical labor market needs and how they have become part of almost every neighborhood in the City.

“We appreciate the Mayor’s attention to family literacy. But it’s too little and too narrow. We call on the Mayor to immediately supplement this funding with money for immigration legal services and immigrant worker legal services as he prepares his Executive Budget,” said Moises Perez, executive director of Alianza Dominicana, New York’s largest community organization serving the Dominican population.

“What the Mayor announced is no doubt a step in the right direction. But I believe that he can do better. If the Mayor wants to send a message to the immigrant community that he is serious about immigrants, he needs to do more,” stated Margaret Chin, deputy director of the Asian Americans for Equality, an organization serving Asian American families throughout the City.

The New York Immigration Coalition and its member groups continue to urge the Mayor and the City Council to each provide $10 million in the City budget to begin to meet the enormous demand for English classes and immigration and worker legal services in the City’s immigrant communities.


 * **Rudy Giuliani Speech on illegal immagration**- “I’m pleased to be with you this evening to talk about the anti-immigrant movement in America,” he said, “and why I believe this movement endangers the single most important reason for American greatness, namely, the renewal, reformation and reawakening that’s provided by the continuous flow of immigrants.”

Giuliani continued: “I believe the anti-immigrant movement in America is one of our most serious public problems.” It can “be seen in legislation passed by Congress and the president.” (Republicans had just passed a welfare reform law that restricted benefits to legal immigrants.) “It can be seen in the negative attitudes being expressed by many of the politicians.”

Giuliani said, somewhat unfairly, that the anti-immigrant movement at that time continued the fear-mongering and discrimination of the nativist movements of the 1920s and the Know-Nothing movement of the 19th century. He celebrated Abraham Lincoln for having the courage to take on the anti-immigrant forces. He detailed the many ways immigration benefits the nation.

Then he turned to the subject of illegal immigration: “The United States has to do a lot better job of patrolling our borders.” But, he continued, “The reality is, people will always get in.”

“In New York City,” he said, “we recognize this reality. New York City’s policy toward undocumented immigrants is called ‘Executive Order 124.’ ” This order protected undocumented immigrants from being reported when they used city services. Giuliani was then fighting the federal government, which wanted to reverse it.

“There are times,” he declared, “when undocumented aliens must have a substantial degree of protection.” They must feel safe sending their children to school. They should feel safe reporting crime to the police. “Similarly, illegal and undocumented immigrants should be able to seek medical help without the threat of being reported. When these people are sick, they are just as sick and just as contagious as citizens.”

This was a fervent speech. And it’s one of many such speeches Giuliani has made over the years. On Sept. 19, 1995, he delivered an immigration speech at the United Nations in which he noted, “Sometimes leadership means taking unpopular positions, rejecting harmful political fads.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLBoyuOVl5Q
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