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07/21/2006
Rendell sounds off on immigration reform at city event
BY ROGER DUPUIS II
STAFF WRITER


Gov. Ed Rendell didn’t come to Thursday’s POWER young professionals meeting in Scranton to talk about illegal immigration, but he didn’t shy away from a question about it, either.

“A lot of this is mean-spirited,” he said of debate surrounding how to deal with illegal immigrants, spurred by a question from the audience about his opinion on Hazleton’s new get-tough legislation aimed at illegal immigrants and those who harbor them.

“A lot of this is being pushed by politicians who absolutely want to keep your eyes away from real stuff. They feed off hate and divisiveness.

“The only ones I want to hear speaking up and complaining about immigration are the Native Americans who we screwed,” he said.

At the same time, Mr. Rendell acknowledged some real concerns at the base of all the hype, from Hazleton to Washington. They include worries that illegal immigranst have an unfair advantage over immigrants who try to enter America the legal — and often long — way, and about illegals who take jobs from Americans.

“They should not be rewarded,” he said. At the same time, the governor said he agrees with President Bush that the nation needs a guest-worker program that would allow aspiring outsiders to take jobs “that Americans don’t fill,” as a means of helping impoverished families work toward a better life.

Mr. Rendell also lashed out at movements to make English the official language in various places. Such resolutions are fine, he said, if purely symbolic, but not so if meant to suppress governments’ ability to provide essential services and forms in other languages.

Mr. Rendell’s other remarks before a crowd of movers and shakers at the Scranton Cultural Center took up themes he has addressed many times before, notably his belief in the need to expand the state’s economy and protect the environment through increased reliance on alternative, non-fossil fuels.

He coupled those themes with a call for improving the quality of life in Pennsylvania’s cities and creating incentives for the growth of high-tech job clusters — two things that will help retain and attract young professionals like those who came to hear his speech. Mr. Rendell praised Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty for his efforts to foster such conditions in the Electric City.

“He’s really in line with what we believe as a group,” Scranton POWER Chapter Director Robert Watts, 29, said of Mr. Rendell. “Ten years ago, you wouldn’t come home from an Ivy League school to live here.”

Now, as the evening’s well-heeled attendees suggest, the picture is changing.

Contact the writer: rdupuis@timesshamrock.com