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Mayor Michael Bloomberg Says Country Needs More Immigrants, Not Fewer

By DNAinfo Staff on July 29, 2010 3:05pm

Mayor Bloomberg supports immigration reform.
Mayor Bloomberg supports immigration reform.
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By Nina Mandell

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Hours after an Arizona judge put a hold on controversial parts of the state's new immigrant laws, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the United States need more immigrants, not fewer, in an interview with Fox 5.

"The city depends on these people," the mayor said when asked about undocumented immigrants' importance to New York City's economy. "You would devastate the national economy if [you removed all of them] by some magic, and that's the only way you do it, you would find everybody who was here illegally and deport them."

Bloomberg said the solution to the country's immigration debate was to enforce a fair law, and use technology to track legal and undocumented workers. He also advocated amnesty.

"You give permanent status, after they pay fines, learn English, whatever to the 12 million [undocumented workers]," he said in the interview. "You reduce the demand for labor from illegal immigrants by enforcing the laws that the companies cannot hire undocumented. And you can only do that if you give them the tools, which is a biometric Social Security card, probably nothing else.

"You make sure that we go and we provide visas for those that we want. And if you do those things, you have a strategy. If you don't do those things, it's not going to work."

Bloomberg has previously stated his support for immigration change.

Last month he met with CEOs of Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Disney and News Corp. to form a coalition advocating for immigration reform, which included a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.

In 2006, Bloomberg estimated that 1.5 million of the city's approximately 3 million immigrants came to America illegally.