Mayor Kasim Reed has a message for immigrants living in the region’s rural areas: Move to Atlanta.
“The truth of the matter is a lot of our foreign-born population lives in rural areas in the region, and so I am telling those folks, ‘I think you are better off being inside the city limits,’ ” Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after announcing new efforts Thursday to welcome immigrants and encourage them to naturalize as U.S. citizens. “And if other folks don’t want to stand up and welcome you, why are you there?”
“I think that folks that don’t embrace these communities,” he continued without identifying anyone, “are on the wrong side of history, No. 1, and they are also on the wrong side of the economy.”
Reed spoke to the AJC after signing an agreement with the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Leon Rodriguez. As part of the initiative, officials will distribute citizenship information in libraries, public schools and community centers. They will hold naturalization information sessions across Atlanta. And they will air public service announcements about those efforts on the city’s public access TV station, Channel 26, and on city websites. The city-federal agreement will remain in effect until December 2017.
The city — which is preparing to open an Office of Immigrant Affairs with three staffers — will absorb the costs. Rodriguez, however, said it is possible the new efforts will attract private funding.
Atlanta’s efforts fit in with President Barack Obama’s emphasis on integrating immigrants, Rodriguez said. He added there are an estimated 100,000 people living in Atlanta who are eligible for naturalization.
“Efforts that you are undertaking through this letter of agreement are critical to the full integration of Atlantan society,” Rodriguez said before signing agreement documents with the mayor.
Reed, a Democrat who has been outspoken in support of Obama’s executive actions on immigration, also criticized Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott. Texas is leading a group of 26 states — including Georgia — in suing to block the Obama administration’s plans to shield from deportation millions of immigrants without legal status.
“So as much as … the governor of Texas criticizes immigrants and beats up on the immigrant population in Texas,” Reed told reporters, “if the foreign-born population in Texas were to actually leave and go back to the countries of their origin, Texas’ economy would crater.”
Abbott’s office had no immediate comment.
Texas and the other states say the president’s plans amount to an unconstitutional end run around Congress and will create additional costs for services for them. Reed is part of a large group of mayors, county officials and others representing 73 municipalities across the country that has filed court papers in support of the president’s actions. The mayors and other officials said the government’s deportation relief programs could generate additional tax revenue for their communities by encouraging immigrants without legal status to come out of the shadows and work legally.
“We think now is the time to be heard while the court is considering the litigation,” Reed said, “and we want to send a clear message that we are moving forward.”
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