Vision PR Newsire United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) President Columbia (SC) Mayor Steve Benjamin has sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar asking for clarity regarding the treatment of the approximately 13,000 migrant children being held in detention centers across the country. Recent reporting has raised several issues of concern about the children’s welfare, the duration of their…
The United States Conference of Mayors Below is a statement by U.S. Conference of Mayors President Columbia (SC) Mayor Steve Benjamin on the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to the Public Charge rule and its impact on the country’s immigrant communities: “The U.S. Conference of Mayors in June unanimously adopted policy opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to penalize lower income immigrant…
Back in January, at the public unveiling of Amplify Columbia, the effort to create a unified cultural plan spearheaded by the city and the city-backed arts nonprofit One Columbia for Arts and History, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin opened his address by reading a poem: William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus.” Translated from Latin, invictus means “unconquered,” and its most famous couplet —…
Today, 136 bipartisan mayors from 34 states and the District of Columbia led by United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) President and Columbia (SC) Mayor Steve Benjamin issued a letter to the Trump Administration and Congress calling for the immediate reunification of families who were separated at the border and a permanent solution to the nation’s broken immigration system. The…
When Steve Benjamin ascended in May to the presidency of the U.S. Conference of Mayors — a nonpartisan group comprised of leaders from cities of 30,000 or larger that advocates on issues that affect municipalities — we all knew the yearlong post would likely lead to an enhanced national spotlight for the third-term Columbia mayor. That spotlight came quickly, and…
The mayor of Columbia, S.C., has vowed to do anything to comfort the migrant children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border – even if that means he will go to jail. Steve Benjamin (D), the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is leading a group of mayors down to the border in western Texas on Thursday,…
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin will lead a bipartisan delegation of mayors to the Mexican border to call for an end of what he termed the federal government’s “inhumane” and “shameful” separation of migrant children from their families. “It’s a tragedy that’s happening here,” he said. “If it were happening anywhere else in the world, we’d be determining here in the…
As part of our continuing series, American Voices, we look at Columbia, South Carolina, to see how national issues are playing out on the local level. Under the watch of Mayor Steve Benjamin, Columbia became the first city in the U.S. to outlaw the attachment of bump stock gun accessories last year. Benjamin, the president of the non-partisan U.S. Conference…
Mayor Steve Benjamin discusses a series of topics in interview with CBS This Morning. Click the image to view the interview.