New York City is the "ultimate city of immigrants," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, and he's informed President-elect Donald Trump that he and other city officials will do all they can to protect residents and keep families from being divided when Trump's planned deportations begin.
"I talked to him about concerns about proposed deportations," the mayor told reporters gathered outside Trump Tower, inside where he held what he called a "candid" meeting with the nation's new leader Wednesday morning to outline the concerns New Yorkers have with his presidency and with his campaign statements.
Trump's proposals, he continued, "flew in the face of all that was great about New York City, the ultimate city of immigrants, the place that has succeeded because it was open for everyone, the place built of generation after generation of immigrants."
Further, de Blasio said he reiterated to Trump that New York, which is also the new president-elect's home, and "so many cities around the country, will do all we can to protect our residents and to make sure that families are not torn apart."
The mayor's talk with Trump comes while he and other Democratic mayors from cities vowed to do all they could to protect their residents from deportation, even though the new president-elect has vowed to withhold millions of dollars in taxpayer money if they do not cooperate.
Chicago's Rahm Emanuel and Seattle's Ed Murray are also attempting to ease concerns from large immigrant populations about Trump's plans.
De Blasio said he also spoke with Trump about other concerns New Yorkers have, including about Wall Street regulation, Muslim relations, and the president-elect's call for more strict law enforcement measures.
"I thought it was very important, particularly as the president-elect begins his transition, for him to hear the voices of the people, and to get some perspective from outside the transition bubble, to understand what's being said in the streets and subways of our city and why people are so deeply concerned," the mayor said.
The mayor said he also told Trump that repealing Dodd-Frank, as he has promised, could harm the economic security of not only New Yorkers, but Americans.
"We would go backwards and our economy would be in peril again, and we would run the risk of another crash," de Blasio said he told Trump.
He said he also addressed Trump's proposal for tax cuts for the wealthy, and that he argued that doing so would risk investments needed in infrastructure in New York City and nationwide.
The mayor told reporters he also spoke with Trump about police/community relations and the president-elect's call to bring back stop-and-frisk laws.
"I tried to provide perspective on how stop-and-risk adds a wedge between police and community when used in an unconstitutional manner and was overused, and how since we changed that policy the city had gotten safer, and that we knew we were never going back to that policy," said de Blasio.
And while speaking about Muslims, de Blasio said he let Trump know that there are 900 member of the faith serving with the New York Police Department and "protecting all of us."
"I let him know that so many New Yorkers were fearful, and that more had to be done to show that this country can heal, that people are respected," said de Blasio. "I left the meeting with the door open for more dialogue."
De Blasio pointed out that Trump is also a New Yorker and loves the city. However, he vowed to be vigilant and "swift to react any time action is taken that will undermine the people of New York City."
He denied, though, that he lectured Trump, but rather he told what he was hearing from New Yorkers, and said there was give-and-take between the two of them.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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