By Laura DeKoven Waxman
October 13, 2008

During the Conference of Mayors Fall Leadership Meeting in Palm Beach October 4, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called for quick, focused action to achieve immigration reform in the next Congress and new Administration. Gordon, who chairs the Conference’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Task Force, laid out five principles based on existing Conference of Mayors policy to guide the Conference’s efforts:

• Increased border security and enforcement;

• More support for city and state governments;

• Use of new technologies to match up foreign workers with jobs in this country that are going unfilled;

• Elimination of current obstacles to citizenship or legal resident status for the 10-12 million undocumented residents living in the shadows; and

• Protection of the human and civil rights of both citizens and non-citizens being detained.

The five principles were discussed and adopted by the mayors in Palm Beach.

Gordon said the Task Force will work in the coming months to further refine its strategy and will meet during the Conference’s Winter Meeting. A key part of this strategy will be building alliances with other groups to achieve consensus for realistic immigration reform which can be enacted at the earliest possible date. He plans meetings with the new Administration and Congressional leaders as early as possible after the Presidential Inauguration.