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As models were taking their final turns on the runways of New York Fashion Week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg argued that the country's immigration policies jeopardize New York's status as "the fashion capital of the world," saying they limit visas for designers, manufacturers and, yes, models.

"This industry could easily move overseas again," Mr. Bloomberg said Friday on his weekly radio show. "We have double the number of fashion houses, I think, of any other place in the world. But we could lose this business very easily. We just have to fix immigration."

Processing delays and strict caps on employment visas, the mayor said, raise costs for the fashion industry, encouraging those businesses to move abroad.

Said Mr. Bloomberg: "The designers want to come over here and create jobs here, and we're not letting them in."

The call to open the nation's shores to the hottest foreign babes echoed a proposal made by former rival Rep. Anthony Weiner two years ago.

That bill was roundly mocked in the press, and Weiner's team charged it was one of many negative stories dug up and shopped around by Bloomberg's opposition research squad.

Using Twitter, Weiner sarcastically applauded Bloomberg's apparent change of heart.

"Great minds think alike...eventually," Weiner tweeted at the mayor's account.

good to know these guys are on our side.