NEW YORK, NY (May 3, 2010) – The new Arizona immigration law is the most misguided, racist and insulting piece of legislation I can imagine. It violates the civil rights of law abiding legal immigrants and is not in any way a solution to the problems that exist in the structure and policies of immigration enforcement.

More than one-third of the people who live in New York City — 2.82 million people — were born outside of the United States. In NY15, one in every five South/Central Harlem residents is foreign-born. In Hamilton Heights and South Washington Heights, that number is 50 percent. Although Dominicans are the greatest in number, there is a growing population of Mexicans in East Harlem and West Africans in Central Harlem. And these figures don’t even count the Russian, Polish, Chinese, East Indian and other Asian people who call this district home.

It is easy for people to forget that the only people who are indigenous to this land are Native Americans. For the rest of us, everyone has an immigrant in their family tree. This fact is one of the things that has made America so great.

The district I hope to represent teems with diversity, presided over by a statue that says: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Those words, written 124 years ago, should be no less poignant today.

In my own family, I have a grandmother whose family came to New York from Italy. My wife is the daughter of immigrants from Trinidad and Canada. In ancestral generations, there was some involuntary immigration rooted in slavery. We have collectively used our immigrant inheritance to inform the pride we have in being Americans; participating in a society that has historically been a beacon to the world.

In the long run, America needs sensible immigration policies that support economic growth by enabling immigrants to participate legally in our economy as consumers, entrepreneurs and investors. I hope the outrage that has erupted all over the country over this law will be a catalyst for achieving immigration reform that is based on realities, not myths, and that treats immigrants fairly and with dignity.

http://morgan4congress.com/wp-content/uploads/Immigration-Reform-Arizona-5-3-10.pdf