Even Bloomberg Can’t Escape Complexity of Immigration

New York Times: On “Meet the Press,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg declared, “We have to go and get the immigrants here.” To a group of business leaders in Brooklyn, he extolled “the economic power” of immigration. And in his State of the City address on Wednesday, he interrupted a litany of local issues to urge Americans “to fix our broken immigration system.” Having taken on the New York City school system and the illegal gun trade, Mr. Bloomberg has now proposed overhauling the federal immigration laws, offering himself as the man to help settle one of the nation’s thorniest debates. He praises immigrants as a precious resource and speaks of current immigration policy with undisguised disgust — “the most ruinous economic policy you could ever conceive of” was his line on Wednesday. But the stark language often brushes past the complexities surrounding immigration, which has proved to be a nuanced and difficult issue, even for the mayor. Though Mr. Bloomberg, the grandson of immigrants from Russia and what is now Belarus, has set an inclusive tone in his nine years as mayor and has provided critical services for immigrants, some programs have failed to live up to expectations. And though he has adopted landmark policies to protect the privacy of illegal immigrants, he has also rankled immigrants’ advocates who say city and police officials work too closely with federal authorities, putting many noncriminals at risk of arrest and deportation.