Harp On Trump Bluff: ​“Come On Down!”

New Haven Mayor Toni Harp called President Trump’s bluff Monday.

Trump sought to put Democratic pro-immigration politicians in a corner by proposing to allow undocumented workers into the country en masse — and then sending them to ​“sanctuary cities.”

Like New Haven.

“If people want to come here and be our neighbors and work to rebuild communities like folks in the Fair Haven have done, folks in the Hill have done, come on down! We want you!” Harp remarked during her latest appearance on WNHH FM’s ​“Mayor Monday” program.

She added that ​“in America, we don’t have an adequate number of workers.”

That said, Harp dismissed Trump’s proposal — which has been widely condemned as not translatable into genuine action — as a stunt. ​“His whole plan for immigration is ill-conceived. He just needs to stop it and come up with a plan that is good for our country and good for the people who’ve risked their lives in other countries for freedom,” Harp remarked. (Click here for a New Haven Register story that includes the similar views of Harp’s mayoral campaign opponent, Justin Elicker, on the issue.)

Also on ​“Mayor Monday,” Harp:

• Said in response to a listener’s question that she supports making it mandatory to vaccinate children for measles. That means parents could be fined for refusing. She said she doesn’t support making it compulsory (meaning parents would be physically forced to do it.)

She answered the question after the first measles case was reported last Friday in New Haven. She praised the religious community for responding by encouraging congregants to take precautions to avoid spreading measles. She spoke of having learned firsthand the importance of vaccines when she contracted polio as a child, before the introduction of the vaccine for that disease.

“I feel strongly about vaccinations,” she said. ​“I’m one of the kids back in the dark ages before there was a polio vaccine that contracted polio, spent at least a half year trying to rid my body of it, learn to walk again. As someone who’s lived with that disease, I would never want anyone to have to live through that or any family to live through that.”

• Spoke of planning to interview neighborhood-nominated candidates for the new police Civilian Review Board before choosing a final list of appointees. Community management teams are supposed to forward nominees’ names to her by the end of the month. She said she’s looking for people who ​“are active in their communities” and ​“will go to the meetings.”

• Responded to a call by the New Haven Police Union Elm City Local to support unionized cops the way she has come out in favor of striking Stop & Shop workers.

“After cutting back on pension benefits in the last contract the administration is proposing three years of zero general wage increases (GWI) followed by two years at 2% plus (not close to the current rate of inflation) and a substantial reduction in health care benefits for the lowest paid police force in the poorest of the big cities, not to mention the better off municipalities in the State of Connecticut,” wrote local President Florencio Cotto.

“Here are questions for Mayor Harp. Do the men and women of the police department deserve your help? If so, members of the police department have been without a contract since June 30th, 2016. Can we as the men and women of this great department be treated fairly with a contract that invests in its employees? I’m asking Mayor Harp to support the men and women of the police department as she supports the strikers.”

“I do support the men and women of the police department. I think they’re the best police force in Connecticut if not the United States,” Harp responded.

“Our only problem is the ability to pay.”

She noted that 56 percent of New Haven property is nontaxable, and the city must rely on property taxes to pay the bills. She called on the state to permit the city to pursue other revenue sources (such as a sales tax or a surcharge on entertainment tickets or restaurant meals).

The police contract is in arbitration. Harp testified last week in an arbitration hearing.

“I want this arbitration and this contract to be settled as soon as possible. And so I am hopeful that it will be done,” she said.

Click on the Facebook Live to watch the full episode of ​“Mayor Monday” on WNHH FM:

WNHH’s ​“Mayor Monday” is made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.