Mayor Bill de Blasio hosts 20 mayors in immigration summit

Mayor Bill de Blasio hosted more than 20 mayors from across the country Monday at a Gracie Mansion summit to coordinate efforts to implement President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration.

De Blasio called the order, which was issued last month and exempts millions of residents who are in the United States illegally from deportation, "a beginning."

The mayors' group has planned joint actions next year to push for further immigration reform, de Blasio said at a news conference at Gracie Mansion.

"We're going to have a day of action in January, where mayors all over the country act in tandem," he said. "We're going to have a mayors' lobby day on Capitol Hill in February. There's going to be a series of actions to build support for bigger reform."

The group will target congressional members who are not yet backing comprehensive immigration reform, de Blasio said.

City officials and community groups have vowed to help to make its implementation as smooth as possible. Between 114,000 to 121,000 New Yorkers will be eligible for the programs that Obama outlined, Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Nisha Agarwal said.

"The consensus in the room today is that reform is actually closer because of the president's executive action," he said. "We know there will be a backlash in this debate."

The mayors, who Monday included Washington, D.C., Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser and San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, signed on to a "five-point challenge" with pledges that included launching a mayoral war room for federal immigration reform, protecting immigrants from fraudulent services, and using community outreach to find eligible program applicants.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett also were at the summit.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed noted that Obama's order changes federal efforts to retain people who are in the country illegally to a "request" from an "order."

"That will allow us to make sure that our police officers are out chasing felons, rather than breaking up families," Reed said.