Your music listening selection while reading the Campaign Spot is your choice, but may I recommend, for the following back and forth between Friends of Rudy and Friends of Romney, the theme, “Dueling Banjos” from Deliverance.
A comment from a Friend of Romney:
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.” – Mayor Rudy Giuliani, 1994 (Deborah Sontag, “New York Officials Welcome Immigrants, Legal Or Illegal,” The New York Times, 6/10/94)
A comment from a Friend of Rudy:
Mitt Romney Now: “And I think we ought to cut off some funding, federal funding, to cities that call themselves sanctuary cities, that welcome people into their cities who are illegal and who provide benefits to individuals, other than of course emergency health care and education. But we don’t want have sanctuary cities, calling on people to come to this country illegally. That’s why we have 12 million illegal people in this country.” (Fox News’ “Fox And Friends,” 8/9/07)
Mitt Romney Then: Despite his recent opposition to sanctuary cities, as Governor, Mitt Romney recommended over $324 million in state aid to Massachusetts sanctuary cities Cambridge, Orleans and Somerville. (Commonwealth Of Massachusetts Fiscal Affairs Division Website, http://www.mass.gov/bb/, Accessed 8/8/07)
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A comment from a Friend of Romney:
Giuliani can deny it all he wants, but it is a fact – New York was a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants.
Executive Order 124:
The New York Times: Executive Order 124 Bans City Employees From Turning In Illegal Immigrants To Federal Authorities. “Executive Order 124, signed by Mayor Edward I. Koch in 1989, said that no city employee or agency could turn over information regarding illegal aliens to Federal immigration authorities without the immigrant’s permission or unless the immigrant was suspected of committing a crime. City agencies were encouraged to provide city services to illegal immigrants in the order, which was later renewed by Mayor David N. Dinkins and Mr. Giuliani.” (David Firestone, “Mayoral Order On Immigrants Is Struck Down,” The New York Times, 7/19/97)
A comment from a Friend of Rudy:
Mitt Romney Now: “I even deputized the State Police to enforce our federal immigration laws.” (Fox News’ “Fox And Friends,” 8/9/07)
Mitt Romney Then: No State Police were ever deputized. On December 13, 2006, Romney Signed Agreement With Federal Government Allowing State Troopers To Enforce Federal Immigration Laws. “Gov. Mitt Romney signed an agreement with federal authorities [on December 13, 2006] that allows Massachusetts State Police troopers to arrest and seek deportation of suspected illegal aliens they encounter over the course of their normal duties.” (Glen Johnson, “Romney Signs Agreement Allowing State Police To Detain Illegals,” The Associated Press, 12/13/06)
Agreement Put 30 Massachusetts State Troopers Through Five Weeks Of Training At Federal Expense. “Under the terms of the agreement, made with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, an initial group of 30 troopers will receive five weeks of specialized training next year, paid by the federal government. The troopers will be drawn from the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Squad, the Criminal Investigation Section, the Anti-Gang Unit, the Drug Enforcement Unit and the Community Action Team. After their training, the troopers will receive a certification allowing them to question and detain suspected illegals, charge them with a violation of immigration law and place them in removal proceedings.” (Glen Johnson, “Romney Signs Agreement Allowing State Police To Detain Illegals,” The Associated Press, 12/13/06)
Before Any Troopers Finished Training, Romney’s Successor Rescinded the Immigration Agreement. “Gov. Deval L. Patrick said Thursday that as expected, he had rescinded a new agreement between Massachusetts and federal officials that empowered the state police to arrest illegal immigrants on charges of violating immigration law.” (Katie Zezima, “Massachusetts Rescinds Deal On Policing Immigration,” The New York Times, 1/12/07)Yet Romney Had Said He Wouldn’t Run For Second Term Because His Work Was Done. Romney: “There was very little that had to spill into a second term that we had any prospects of ever getting done. . . . The vision that I ran for and that I promised to the people of Massachusetts I’ve delivered to the extent that I possibly can.” (Frank Phillips and Scott Helman, “It’s 1 Term For Romney,” The Boston Globe, 12/15/05)
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Friend of Rudy:
In 1990’s, Federal Government Failed To Deal With Illegal Immigration Problem, Resulting In Almost 400,000 Illegal Immigrants In NYC When Giuliani Took Office.
GIULIANI: “Well, I got into office. I had 400,000 illegal immigrants, give or take 100,000 … The Immigration and Naturalization Service would only deport 1,500 to 2,000 a year. So I said to myself I have 398,000 illegal immigrants because the federal government is not going to do anything about this.” (Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” 8/2/06)
In 1995, Giuliani Criticized Federal Government For Failing To Deport Illegal Immigrants With Criminal Histories Even Though NYC Officials Gave INS Their Names.
“GIULIANI: [T]he federal government should be doing more about illegal immigration. We just happened to check the numbers and in this part of the state, there were only about 776 deportations last year of people. … Now we send thousands and thousands of names of illegal and undocumented aliens to the INS who have committed crimes. Either accused or convicted of committing crimes. So literally sitting at the INS is a pile maybe this big of names of people who have committed crimes and last year they got around to deporting seven to eight hundred of them.” (Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Joint Press Conference with Governor Pete Wilson (CA), New York, NY, 3/29/95)
Friend of Romney:
Giuliani Said Illegal Immigrants Have “Legal Rights” In The U.S. GIULIANI: “They have legal rights, whether they’re legal or illegal, The fact that you are a human being in America means you have legal rights.” (CNN’s “Inside Politics,” 7/25/97)
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And this comes from a friend of Romney, but I think it’s a compelling argument for Rudy – if you can’t get rid of all of the illegal immigrants, what do you do with the teenagers who are there?
Giuliani Wanted To Give A “Zone Of Protection” To Illegal Immigrants.
GIULIANI: “So that we wouldn’t have 40, 50, 60, 70,000, 80,000 children out of school and in the streets of the city and in apartments. We gave that kind of protection to people who might have been beaten or the victims of crime, so that they could get relief and help and so that they could assist the rest of us in society by reporting people who committed crimes, and it gave that relief and zone of protection to people who were sick and needed humane and decent services.” (NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday,” 10/12/96)
GIULIANI: “The Immigration and Naturalization Service would only deport 1,500 to 2,000 a year. So I said to myself I have 398,000 illegal immigrants because the federal government is not going to do anything about this. It can’t. So I had to figure out how do I deal with it so that I regularize them, so that I.”
O’REILLY: “So how did you do that?”
GIULIANI: “…they don’t commit crimes. They don’t – well, we made sure that their children were allowed to go to school for which we were criticized. But if I didn’t do that, I would end up with children on the streets. If I had just said well, illegal immigrants can’t have their children in school. And we tried to make their lives reasonable.”
O’REILLY: “How about city services?”
GIULIANI: “It would have been.”
O’REILLY: “Did you give them city money?”
GIULIANI: “Sure, we did. If they were necessary services.” (Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” 8/2/06)