NYC mayor asks Trump to allay fears of immigrants
new york — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday he told Donald Trump during a private meeting that fear is gripping communities in America’s largest city over the US president-elect’s vows to crack down on illegal immigrants.
The Democratic mayor and the wealthy Republican New York real estate developer traded insults during the campaign, but met for about an hour inside Trump’s skyscraper headquarters.
Afterward, de Blasio said he expressed his concerns about Trump’s policies toward immigrants, as well the need for tough Wall Street regulation and protecting the rights of racial and religious minorities.
De Blasio, who supported fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton against Trump in last week’s election, said the two men had a candid and substantive discussion.
De Blasio said he told Trump immigrant families should not be torn apart by deportations, and that the police tactic supported by Trump of stopping and searching people on the street can drive a wedge between minorities and law enforcement.
New York historically has been a city filled with immigrants. According to census data, 37 per cent of New York City’s 8.6 million residents are foreign-born, far above the national figure of 13 per cent.
“I tried to express to him how much fear there is — how much fear there is in communities all over this city,” the mayor told reporters outside Trump Tower.
During the campaign, Trump called for the deportation of all of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally. Trump said in a TV interview aired on Sunday his priority was to remove up to 3 million immigrants who have criminal records or are gang members or drug dealers, and would decide on the others after the US border is secured.
The mayor last Thursday said New York would remain a sanctuary city shielding illegal immigrants, adding that “we are not going to sacrifice a half million people who live among us, who are part of our community”.
Trump has said he may want to place some US mosques under surveillance and suggested he may want to maintain a national database of Muslims. The New York Police Department has 900 officers who are Muslim, de Blasio said he told Trump.
The mayor declined to say what Trump’s responses had been.
“I think they both said it was a very productive meeting,” Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said separately, adding that the president-elect is open to speaking with a variety of people.
Trump during the campaign called de Blasio the worst mayor in America and in New York City’s history. The mayor during the campaign called Trump dangerous and “one of the worst demagogues in recent US political history”.
De Blasio said he spoke to Trump about the importance of tough banking regulations and of tax cuts that do not favour the wealthy. Trump has promised a “dismantling” of the Democraticbacked 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law enacted following the financial crisis, and has promised deep tax cuts. — Reuters