Philadelphia to host immigration forum on day one of DNC

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Protestors block streets outside City Hall (Tom MacDonald / WHYY)

Protestors block streets outside City Hall (Tom MacDonald / WHYY)

The city of Philadelphia is hosting an immigration discussion as part of the Democratic National Convention.  Mayor Jim Kenney says immigration will be a key issue for the next president and he wants to talk about it when the world’s eyes are on Philadelphia.

“We want to talk about best practices and how we can work together and move this process forward.  Immigration built our cities and we are in a dysfunctional immigration discussion nationally and we need to figure out how we are going to get out of it and hopefully with a new president, Hillary Clinton we will be able to move in a better direction,” Kenney said.

Kenney says the nation’s current immigration policy is “dysfunctional” and immigrants and the country could benefit from smarter policies.

“Specifically there’s a whole realm of stuff — English language learners, opportunities for job creation, business creation, ID card all that stuff,” he said.

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He’s hopeful Hillary Clinton will be elected the next president and will address immigration once in the White House.

Kenney will be joined by fellow Mayors Bill deBlasio of New York and Greg Stanton of Phoenix  and others for the event on July 25th, opening day of the DNC.

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