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.”
Post #36 - the REAL Rudy.
But that wouldn't keep me from voting for him if I thought I could believe a word he says.
For Rudy Giuliani to come out and tell such a blatant lie about something that is so easily refuted is pretty remarkable. It looks to me like an act of desperation on his part — perhaps after seeing how Hillary Clinton’s campaign began sinking like a rock almost exclusive because of this one issue.
When a candidate gets to that level of lying, he is scared to the point of irrationality and desperation. He must not even be placing on internal polling.
Scoff——everything Rooty’s said so far is a contradiction of what he said (or did) in a previous life......his memory underwent an Extreme Makeover.
Giuliani’s “values” wouldn’t fill a thimble. He worships at the Church of Whatever Works For Me.
This egomaniac thinks he can force on Americans the irrational mindset stinking up Mideast hellholes.
Speaking of that... I hear that Rudy’s jock strap is actually a thimble with two rubber bands.
Oh puhleez,,,when it comes to blatant lies--I'll match Rudy's claim that he did NOT know his first wife was his second cousin (he claims he thought she was his third cousin) with ANY of his lies!! Rudy made that claim to get his annulment from the Catholic Church.
I mean, get real Rudy. He was married for 14 years,,,FOURTEEN years!!! You would think that SOMEONE in either family (or friends from either family) might have noticed that--during the engagement, wedding, reception, family get-togethers, family parties, anniversaries, birthdays, family cookouts, family anythings....lol
Come on Rudy, who but a Rudy apologist would believe THAT whopper?
Makes a lotta sense.
That’s why he brought the NYPD with him to vist his mistress-—as reinforcements when the going got (ahem) rough.
Sorry Rooty, you are in the wrong party, conservatives check out what candidates claim.
In a sad sort of way, I feel sorry for Rooty, like I do for most folks who are totally desperate. This is a big stretch, Rooty, and saying this is very sad, because you know that few believe a word you are saying.
Hey folks, never think your past actions do not have consequences, just ask Rooty, he will never be President.
****Rudy wears a pink feather boa and no tux.
But that wouldn’t keep me from voting for him if I thought I could believe a word he says.****
Lets get something straight (no pun intended) I would vote for him as well, but like Hilly & Billy, Rudy doesn’t know what honesty is.
He's unable to articulate deft, non-harmful positions as much as he'd really like to.
Too bad he can't leave explaining his positions on issues to a sharp, well-trained PR specialist like Rush Limbaugh.
Leni
Hey, c’mon, the flip flopping is working for Huckabee, it just might work for Rudy.
al rantel was discussing this on kabc lost angeles this morning.
it’s a real mind twister!
He wanted to, but he didn’t, and was mayor to the largest sanctuary city in the country and boasted about it.
Giuliani’s “values” wouldn’t fill a thimble. He worships at the Church of Whatever Works For Me.
This egomaniac thinks he can force on Americans the irrational mindset stinking up Mideast hellholes.
He's a liberal's liberal. One day he's masquerading around in a Jimmy Carter mask, the next day he's masquerading around in a Bill Clinton mask.
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