deBlasio ends immigration sponsorship requirement

From the Daily News:

In a reversal of his predecessor’s policy, Mayor de Blasio has quietly stopped requiring immigrants’ sponsors to repay the city if the people they helped go on welfare.

De Blasio is also refunding close to $1 million to 250 New Yorkers who were compelled to cough up money under the policy, according to budget documents released last week.

Most of the refunds are going to sponsors who are relatives of the immigrants they sponsored, officials said.

The payback policy stems from a 1997 federal law, which requires sponsors of immigrants to sign a contract saying they are financially responsible if the people they sponsored accept some public benefits.

The feds didn’t enforce the law, and no city adopted the policy until New York took it up in 2012 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The city gave low-income sponsors, victims of domestic abuse, asylum seekers and refugees a pass, along with recipients of food stamps and Medicaid.

Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Lilliam Barrios-Paoli said the de Blasio administration ended the paybacks in February because it was “wrong.”

“These people are our neighbors. They pay taxes. And they deserve better,” said Barrios-Paoli.

The rest of us pay taxes, too, and we deserve better than to have freeloaders brought here to mooch off us. When my immigrant ancestors came here, they also were required to have sponsors that would be financially responsible for them if they couldn't work so they would not become burdens of the state. Why did that change?

Cowardly senators introduce parkland alienation bill without sponsor

From A Walk in the Park:

With just ten days left in the State Senate and Assembly session, "no name" proponents quietly introduced legislation this afternoon to alienate parkland for the United State Tennis Association expansion NYC Park Advocates has learned.

And we mean quietly. The Bill, S 5663, was introduced without a sponsor, a distinction reserved for legislators unwilling to take responsibly for the legislation.

"That seems like a way around accountability," commented one chief of staff for an Assembly member.

So everyone has come out in favor of the USTA plan, but no one wants to put their name on the bill?

Simply amazing. But not all that surprising.

Bloomberg inconsistent on immigration

From the NY Sun:

Mayor Bloomberg, in a startling departure from his pro-immigration stance, is testing a new program designed to chase down sponsors of legal immigrants who end up on certain kinds of public assistance, and the city intends to make the sponsors pay back money to the government.

The threat is being made by the city’s Human Resources Administration, which is circulating a press release warning that it will start sending out in August letters to sponsors of immigrants who are not citizens but who are receiving cash assistance from a program called Safety Net. It estimates that there are 12,000 sponsors the city could go after, but says it expects that it will only recover from about 8% of them, or 960 cases.

Mr. Bloomberg’s demarche, which was signaled in the budget earlier this year, has been little-remarked-upon. In the large scheme of things it is a modest test. Yet it contrasts sharply with the mayor’s generally welcoming stance toward immigrants. In 2007, the mayor denounced Governor Romney of Massachusetts for saying that the federal government should slash funding for cities that don’t strictly enforce immigration laws. “Boy, let them come,” Mr. Bloomberg said at the time in a riposte to Mr. Romney, who’d denounced New York as a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants.

Describing New York City’s new policy last week, the Bloomberg administration insisted that the city “believes that immigrants coming here from countries throughout the world are vital to the success and vibrancy of our City. We also believe in personal responsibility.” It called its initiative “only one small component of HRA’s ongoing recoupment and recovery efforts that we conduct as part of our regular business. Additionally, we are ensuring the commitment by the sponsor is honored.”

So, coming here illegally is "personally responsible?"