NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the economy would fail if illegal immigrants were deported

(AP) The economy of the country's largest city and the entire nation would collapse if illegal immigrants were deported en masse, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, and a half-million of them came to this country illegally, Bloomberg testified.

"Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders ... our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported," he said. "The same holds true for the nation."

The hearing, led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., in Philadelphia, was one of several being held nationwide as congressional Republicans take to the road to discuss overhauling the nation's immigration laws.

House GOP leaders called for the hearings last month in a blow to President Bush's ambitious election-year plan that includes a guest worker program and path to citizenship for millions in this country illegally.

Specter and fellow senators are trying to build support for a Senate bill that would allow a majority of the illegal immigrants in the country to eventually become legal permanent residents and citizens after paying at least $3,250 in fines, fees and back taxes and learning English.

The competing bill passed by the House focuses on enforcement and has no provision for illegal immigrants or future guest workers.

Bloomberg encouraged Congress to offer illegal immigrants an opportunity to earn permanent status.

"Members of the House of Representatives want to control the borders. So do all of us here," Bloomberg said. "But believing that increasing border patrols alone will achieve that goal is either naive and shortsighted or cynical and duplicitous. No wall or army can stop hundreds of thousands of people each year."

A House subcommittee planned a meeting Wednesday at a San Diego Border Patrol station to examine security lapses that could expose the U.S. to terrorism. The same panel planned another hearing Friday in Laredo, Texas.

Republican-led House committees also plans hearings outside Washington in mid-July on making English the nation's official language, and on how enforcement of immigration laws affects American workers. A mid-August hearing in Arizona will focus on costs to local and state governments.