Author Archives: Comms

Mayor Adler Makes Foreign Policy’s List of 2017 Leading Global reThinkers

For Immediate Release
Release Date: Monday, Dec. 4, 2017
Contact: Jason Stanford (512) 978-2153
Foreign Policy Press Contact: Hanna Berman
Hanna.Berman@foreignpolicy.com
(202) 728-7341

 

Each year, Foreign Policy selects a distinguished list of people who have made an important impact on fields such as politics, diplomacy, science, and the arts. This year, the magazine is proud to recognize its honorees as Global reThinkers — individuals from around the world whose actions are disrupting the status quo. Because of the scale of his impact on immigration issues and his role as a leader in Texas at this moment in the U.S., Mayor Adler is among the 100 individuals on the list.

Continue reading →

Foreign Policy Global Thinkers profile

On Jan. 28, Austin Mayor Steve Adler was set to give a speech about a perennially sore local issue: the cost of housing. But the night before, President Donald Trump’s first travel ban sowed chaos around the country, and Adler, struck by the reports of refugees stranded at airports, pivoted from his prepared remarks to champion his city’s values in the face of the administration’s sudden clampdown.

“Immigrants are part of who we are and who we have always been,” Adler declared. “The world can completely lose its mind, and we’re still going to be Austin, Texas.” His audience responded with a standing ovation.

For Adler, those were words to live by in 2017, a year marked by an intense Republican-led effort to reshape U.S. immigration policy. Yet even as Texas lurched further to the political right this year — passing a show-me-your-papers law in May aimed at punishing policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement — the soft-spoken mayor emerged as one of the fiercest defenders of immigrants’ rights in his state. Continue reading →

Address to ADL Austin’s Golden Gala

ADL Austin Golden Gala Speech

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017

 

Thank you for honoring Diane and me, together. Diane not only supports what I do, but we’ve always been a team and she does it with me, and frequently she does it better. For us to receive a Joint Honor is one of the greatest honors tonight. Diane, this room has seen, yet again, why I love you so much.

I join Diane in recognizing and thanking Audrey and Ray Maislin, who not only led the establishment of ADL Austin, but have often been like parents to me. And Mr. Khan, you and your wife are channeling unbelievable sacrifice into such critical service. Thank you.

That I took Diane to an ADL dinner as one of our first dates should tell you two things: First, I know how to show a girl a good time.

Second, what the ADL does is deeply meaningful to me. ADL combats anti-Semitism, for sure. But the genius of ADL is that its mission is much broader. The ADL’s mission is to ensure “justice and fair treatment to all.”

Continue reading →