NYC mayor unveils assistance program for new immigrants

NEW YORK (AP) — Mayor Bill de Blasio is announcing a nearly $8 million investment to aid immigrant New Yorkers.

De Blasio said Monday that the funding will create navigation hubs at immigration services organizations across the city's all five boroughs.

The mayor said hubs will help better connect recent immigrants to services if President Obama's executive actions on immigration are implemented.

De Blasio, a Democrat, made the announcement at the annual National Immigrant Integration Conference, this year held in Brooklyn.

The mayor told the story of his own grandmother emigrating to the U.S. from Italy. He criticized the anti-immigrant positions taken by some Republican presidential candidates.

De Blasio called for cities to do more and used the example of a Syrian refugee family that resettled in New York earlier this year.