Fed up with the stalemate in Washington, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday formed his own high-powered coalition of business leaders and mayors to reform the nation’s immigration laws by focusing on how revised regulations could provide the United States with a major economic boost.
“We’re not a pressure group; we’re an information group,” the mayor declared.
Aides said the mayor hoped to steer clear of the emotional issues that have made immigration reform such a hot-button political issue and instead find common ground in the potential economic benefits.
“People aren’t talking about this in terms of economic competitiveness,” said one mayoral aide. “He wants to shift the debate toward that.”
The mayor has been complaining for months that US immigration laws are barring “the best and brightest from coming here, opening businesses and developing the next Microsoft.”
Bloomberg cited studies showing that 25 percent of US high-tech startups in the last 10 years had at least one immigrant as a founder.
The team assembled by the mayor included some of the best-known names in US business: Mark Hurd, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard; Robert Iger, president and CEO of The Walt Disney Co.; J.W. Marriott, chairman and CEO of Marriott International; Jim McNerney, chairman and CEO of Boeing; and Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., which owns The Post.
Bloomberg and Murdoch made a joint appearance on Fox News to discuss the group’s mission.
“I think we can show to the public the benefits of having immigrants and the jobs that go with them,” Murdoch said.
Also on the team are Mayors Julian Castro of San Antonio, Phil Gordon of Phoenix, Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.
Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future, a New York think tank, said the involvement of the mayors and so many “high-caliber” business leaders would remind Congress the immigration issue isn’t going away.
But City Hall insiders predicted nothing was likely to happen in Washington this year. As one put it, “If I were the president, I wouldn’t be pushing this in an election year.”