Last week, I expressed concern at recently appointed New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her record and comments on immigration and the English first movement. Yesterday, she met with local leaders, including many Latinos specifically to talk immigration and her equally controversial positions on gun control.

“I was very grateful with the frankness of my colleagues as they described the issues that affect their communities with such passion and such honesty and that helps me be a better senator,” she said.

Pero does her appreciation equal a change in position? I personally don’t think so. All she said was that she was willing to reconsider which reads to me as a political nicety.

Following the meeting she said she would consider supporting pathways to citizenship and the Dream Act, which would help children of undocumented workers.

“The raids and deportation that’s ripping our families apart, that needs to stop,” said City Councilman Joel Rivera. “I posed the question, ‘are you willing to commit to call for an executive order to stop these deportations?’ and she was unable to make that commitment.”

On Thursday, members of the City Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus urged Gillibrand to change her positions if she wants to get reelected next year.

I don’t think that the millions of immigrants and their children can wait till 2010. Take for example the statement sent by ICE yesterday to the Univision news program Al Punto, when they were asked about the lawsuit filed on behalf of 600 children of undocumented immigrants. The statement pretty much said that ICE would continue to do their work to enforce the law and that people needed to understand, especially under the current economic crisis, that undocumented immigrants take jobs away from those here legally.

Gillibrand, like Obama need to move now. They need not to just support useful legislative proposals like the DREAM Act, which are important pero don’t go far enough and in some ways support the good/bad immigrant dichotomy. We need to put an immediate stop the ICE raids until the immigration system is not reformed, pero fixed on numerous levels.

Via / Hispanic Tips, New American Media, NY1