Saying he’s frustrated with federal inaction on immigration, Gov. John Kasich has signed an executive order that he says will assist legal immigrants in getting work, finding help and integrating into Ohio.
Kasich’s order creates the Office of Opportunities for New Americans and sets up a website and an advisory committee to link immigrants with state agencies that deal with job training, education and employment. It applies only to the 4 percent of Ohio’s population of documented immigrants, though status won’t be checked. But Kasich says it’s time Congress does something on illegal immigration.
“We’re not going to take 11, 12 million people and put them on a yellow school bus and ship them to the border. We need to get them into a position where they have some sort of a status. But they just can’t seem to do anything because everybody’s so political down there and polarized,” he said.
Kasich has blasted President Trump and hard-line Republicans on immigration, saying it could help with Ohio’s anemic population growth.
