Posted on 12/11/2007 8:11:31 AM PST by TitansAFC
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Rudy Giuliani says he wanted to deport all 400,000 illegal immigrants from New York City when he was mayor, but ended up welcoming most of those who were “causing me no trouble.”
In an interview for the new book “Meet the Next President,” Giuliani lamented that the Immigration and Naturalization Service deported only 700 to 1,500 of the city’s 400,000 aliens each year during his mayoralty. Giuliani said it was obvious the INS was not about to increase deportation “from 700 or 1,500 to 400,000.”
“If they could, I would have turned all the people over. It would have helped me. I would have had a smaller population. I would have had fewer problems,” the Republican presidential candidate told The Examiner in an interview. “But the practical reality was, they were going to make an infinitesimal, statistically insignificant contribution to the problem. I was stuck with it. And no matter what their promises, they weren’t going to do anything about it.”
In fact, according to Giuliani, the INS told his predecessor, David Dinkins, to stop reporting criminals for deportation. Dinkins complied, even though he had re-issued an executive order by his predecessor, Ed Koch, that called for the reporting of illegals suspected of “engaging in criminal activity.”
When Giuliani took over as mayor, he too re-issued the Koch order.
“Why don’t you throw out the people who are drug dealers, that are coming out of jail? And before they hit the streets, we can turn them over,” Giuliani recalled telling the INS. “We couldn’t work that out with them. They wouldn’t do it for us.
“They wouldn’t do it for us because they had, you know, some professor with a visa first, and they had two restaurant workers, and three gardeners. Now it may or may not be right for them to be here, but they’re not threatening anybody. These drug dealers are threatening people. I couldn’t get them to do that, so I had to handle the thing myself. And I handled it.”
Giuliani handled it by cracking down on illegals who broke more than immigration laws. Meanwhile, he adopted a laissez-faire attitude toward everyone else who entered the United States illegally.
“The ones that are causing me no trouble, I’m going to leave them alone,” he told The Examiner. “They’re contributing to the lawful part of the city. I’ve got so many citizens — legal immigrants, and then some illegal immigrants — committing crimes that I’ve got to pay attention to them.”
Similarly, Giuliani concluded that going after school-age illegals would be an empty political gesture.
“I had sixty-[thousand] to seventy-thousand children in school who were illegal immigrants,” he said. “So for the purpose of protecting my backside, I would turn over the names to the immigration service so I could sound like a tough guy? I would end up with fifty-[thousand] to sixty-thousand kids on the street. And crime would go up in New York, not go down.”
So the mayor resigned himself to the federal government’s inability or unwillingness to deport illegal immigrants. In the process, he absolved himself of any blame for the city’s ongoing status as a haven for 400,000 illegals.
“That’s the federal government’s problem,” he told The Examiner. “If you’re not hurting anybody in my city, I don’t care.”
But Giuliani’s “I don’t care” attitude toward illegals sometimes morphed into unabashed cheerleading, as if he were rolling out the red carpet for them.
“Some of the hardest-working and most productive people in this city are undocumented aliens,” the mayor said at a 1994 press conference. “If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you’re one of the people who we want in this city. You’re somebody that we want to protect, and we want you to get out from under what is often a life of being like a fugitive, which is really unfair.”
The Examiner asked Giuliani why it was unfair to apply fugitive status to someone who broke the law to enter the United States.
“We were going to treat them as a fugitive if they committed a crime,” he replied. “And we weren’t going to treat them like a fugitive if they were being calm and responsible and decent.
“And finally, it didn’t much matter what I did with them,” he added. “The turning over of names to the immigration service was a mere formal act. It was absurd to think that they could possibly handle it. It continues to be absurd.
“In order to deal with the 12 million illegals that are in this country, you would have to take the entire federal, state and local criminal justice systems and multiply it by some factor of seven or eight or nine.”
Instead of attempting such an impossible task, Giuliani said he would concentrate on securing the U.S.-Mexico border if elected president.
Although Giuliani has been savaged by rival Republicans for his record on immigration, he insisted to The Examiner that “immigration is an issue that is not a negative with any Republican voters for me.” He said he wants voters to view his immigration stance in the context of his tough-on-crime credentials.
“My objective was to make New York City safe,” he said. “Illegal immigration and the problem of illegal immigrants was just one of many problems that were part of that whole. So the real question is, did I deal with it intelligently, and did it result in the city becoming much safer? Or did I deal with it stupidly and the city became much more dangerous?”
He believes the answer to that question will calm any fears that voters might harbor about his immigration stance.
“I end up being the strongest candidate on immigration, for the reason that I ran a city and made it real safe,” he concluded. “And I don’t see any opponent that I have who has ever done nearly as much about bringing down illegality as I have.”
He wanted to deport 400,000 illegals from his Sanctuary City??? What a conniving rat!
The definitely ARE NOT Pro-America, Pro-Freedom Conservatives!!!
Lord, please rid us of RINO phonies.
Rudy Giuliani makes Bill Clinton look like Ward Cleaver, Ozzie Nelson and Jim Anderson (Father Knows Best) all rolled into one.
This would be a good topic for a separate weekend Chat thread: 'Rudy Makes Bill Clinton Look Like...'
:-)
Sounds like liberal-speak to me.
FMCDH(BITS)
Hell - even Rudy doesn’t know where Rudy REALLY stands on any matter...
He makes the flip flopping Kerry look like a virtual Rock of Gibraltar.
. . .an American.
This guy is becoming less and less electable as each day passes. Thankfully so.
True. But his name recognition--combined with those willing to keep 'their heads in the sand' when it comes to discussing or debating his liberal position on many issues--will keep him in good stead with the liberal-leaning wing of the Party.
It's up to conservatives to keep 'enlightening' all Republicans about how LIBERAL Rudy really is. It is happening as we speak, but it will be a slow process--as most are just starting to look at the candidates.
No doubt.
I urge every FReeper to read this (or catch MTP reruns on MSNBC).
Meet The Press transcript. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22170668/
Russert reamed Giuliani unmercifully. Russert was visibly disgusted at Rooty’s moronic smirking and giggling over every serious question. Russert even reprimanded RG: “hey, these are serious questions.”
Russert hit RG with dirty Kerik, security for Jooty, and Rooty’s scummy business dealings-—pitchng hardball questions.
The smirking, grinning Rooty lied and lied and lied. He provided security for his bimbo well-before she was publicly known-—so how could she have been threatened? Rooty and his admin diverted government funds to give the bimbo 24/7 security coverage. Obscure agencies with struggling budgets were saddled with the bills for Rooty’s mistress.
Thanks to Tim Russert, Rudy’s numerous glaring personality and character flaws were exposed. Tim Russert provided a great public service.
Giuliani:Ran a sanctuary city and was darned proud of it. “There are times when undocumented workers (code for illegal aliens) must have protection,” he insisted then. He praised the “courage and ambition” it takes “to leave your native country and start a new life in a new land” – and to begin by breaking the laws of that new land, refusing to learn its language, scarfing government benefits, taking jobs from those who are there legitimately (immigrant and native born) and perhaps committing a more serious crime or two.
In 1994, the Huddled Masses Kid told an audience, “If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you’re one of the people who we want in this city.” On 9/11, some with an undocumented status accepted his invitation.
In 1996, Giuliani compared immigration reform advocates to the Know Nothing Party. “The anti-immigration issue that’s now sweeping the country in my view is no different than the movements that swept the country in the past. You look back at the Chinese Exclusionary Act, or the Know-Nothing movement – these were movements that encouraged Americans to fear foreigners, to fear something that is different, and to stop immigration.” Besides the smear – comparing a majority of concerned Americans to racists and xenophobes – we should fear those who infiltrate our borders, who may have criminal records or terrorist ties. We should also fear the effect on national unity of those who don’t learn English and won’t identify with America (witness all of the Mexican flags at illegals’ demonstrations last year).
In 2000, Rudy boasted, “There isn’t a mayor or a public official in this country that’s more strongly pro-immigrant (another euphemism) than I am, including disagreeing with President Clinton when he signed anti-immigrant legislation (cutting off a few benefits to some illegals) about two or three years ago, which we got some amendments of (sic.) to protect the rights of immigrants.” Did that include flying lessons? How do you say “I love New York” in Arabic?
Seems like St Rooty's aura is wearing thin and his halo getting tarnished. After he loses in Iowa, NH, and SC - come Super Tuesday his support will be gone as people will see the 'Emperor Has No Clothes' (America's Mayor Is A Phony) and he'll fade away and be like last year's news.
It also has some stuff about Mitt & Huck on their Illegal problems but right now Rooty Tooty is the concern.
Thanks, Book-marked for future use :-)
Oh wow... He’s completely melting down. I wanted him to lose the primaries just to keep our party out of RINO/immoral clutches. Now I want to see him lose the primaries just to enjoy, with extreme satisfaction, watching the GOP base flush this liar down the electoral toilet.
“Hunter built the darned fence.”
And Rudy said he wanted a virtual fence.
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