Bloomberg: Assign Immigrants to Cities Like Detroit, If They Survive 7 Years Grant Them Citizenship

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (AP)

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested last week that the U.S. government could tackle its illegal immigration problem and boost economic output by “assigning” immigrants to “hollowed out” cities like Detroit.

“All the federal government’s got to do is say, ‘We’re going to welcome here in this country — first come, first served — families, if they’re willing to come here under the following terms,” Bloomberg said during a New England Council-sponsored event featuring media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

Additionally, the mayor suggested, if immigrants can survive in places like Detroit for seven years, they should be granted citizenship.

“We’re going to assign you a city — let’s say Detroit — you got to agree to not be arrested and not take any federal, state or city money, and you’ve got to live there for seven years, and if you survive seven years, we’ll make you and your family full citizens,” he added.

Bloomberg reasoned that if the feds assign illegal aliens to run down cities, they  would soon renovate “houses that are derelict,” demand better education, and start growing businesses.

“Since they value education, they’d make a big fuss and demand the schools get better,” the New York City mayor said. ”Immigrants have a very low crime rate, so that you certainly don’t have to worry about that. They’d create businesses. If they had to drive to California every morning for three jobs and drive back at night, they’d do it, anything.”

But more than offering opportunities to immigrants, Bloomberg argues that his plan would also create jobs for all of America’s unemployed.

“And you would get people to come here, and they would fill those cities with a vibrancy, and the people who are unemployed in those cities would all of a sudden have companies they can go to work for,” said Bloomberg.

“They’d get the jobs helping fix up the houses. They’d be in the schools. They’d be driving the buses. They’d be starting businesses of their own, because they’d see how other people can do it.”

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Click here to watch the full forum [Detroit survival comments begin at the 39:02 mark].

(H/T: CNS News). All photos courtesy the AP.