Yesterday, Mayor Ras Baraka, the Urban Mayors’ Association, and Essex County College held a Roundtable conference on President Barack Obama’s Executive Order on Immigration Reform at Essex County College. At the Roundtable, the mayors, joined by consuls from 10 nations, and Mayor Wilda Diaz, of Perth Amboy, and Mayor Adrian O. Mapp, of Plainfield, discussed the Executive Order and how it impacts on their communities.
Among the issues that were discussed were proposed City-wide identification cards, the DACA/DAPA process (Google that), and other measures. Partnering agencies include Essex County College, the Urban Mayors Association, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the New York City Office of Immigrant Affairs, and the American Immigration Council. The president’s Executive Order on Immigration Reform has already received negative response from 26 states.
“We believe that this is a country of immigrants and it should remain a country of immigrants. My father used to say, ‘If everybody went back where they belong, the airports would be very crowded, because none of us belong here if we’re not Native American.”‘
