New York became a sanctuary city, where illegal immigrants enjoy some measure of protection, through an executive order signed by Mayor Ed Koch in 1989, five years before Giuliani became mayor in January 1994.
But if Giuliani inherited the policy, he reissued it and seemed to embrace it.
At a June 1994 press conference, Giuliani decried anti-illegal immigration policies as unfair and hostile.
"Some of the hardest-working and most productive people in this city are undocumented aliens," Giuliani said at the time. "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."
At a speech in Minneapolis in 1996, Giuliani defended Koch's executive order, that, in his words "protects undocumented immigrants in New York City from being reported to the INS while they are using city services that are critical for their health and safety, and for the health and safety of the entire city."
I will end illegal immigration, secure our borders, and identify every non-citizen in our nation.
Huh ... when you look below the "12 commitments to the American people" he's made, of which this is number 2, there are no details yet as to what this commitment really means.
So I think it is fair to ask, how will Rudy "end illegal immigration" when his past says he pretty much accepted and defended it?
Or better yet, perhaps the question to ask is why should we believe you now when you had a chance in the past to actually address it and enforce existing law and chose, instead to ignore it, Mr. "Law and Order?"
Consistency? Rudy comes out with an endorsement of John McCain (if Rudy himself was not running). McCain-Kennedy Amnesty Bill? Can you connect the dots? Rudy=amnesty support. Any other words are mere pandering to confuse the masses that Rudy is anti-illegal aliens. What other issues is Rudy covering up? This may not be a smoking gun, but it is a credibility alarm.
Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 —Book by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins
Mitt; From LA Times 3/25/07 Activists remember a different Romney They say he wooed them when he ran for governor by tilting left on the environment, gay rights and abortion.
As an abortion-rights advocate, Deborah Allen did not think she would find much in common with Mitt Romney. Then she heard his pitch. If elected Massachusetts governor, Romney said in an endorsement meeting, he would "preserve and protect" legal abortion. The judges he picked would probably do the same. And then he said something so unexpected that Allen began to see Romney, a Republican whom she had considered an uncertain ally, as sincere in his search for common ground. "You need someone like me in Washington," he said, according to Allen and two other abortion-rights activists, whose group was deciding whether to endorse Romney in the 2002 race for governor. Though running for state office, Romney hinted at national ambitions and said he would soften the GOP’s position on abortion. The Republians’ hard-line stance, he said, was "killing them."...
Giuliani did endorse Ed Koch’s "sanctuary" policy for illegals, but the irony is that if anyone could clean up the immigration situation it would be Rudy. He would know how to do it, if he really means it.
As for Bernie Kerik as police commissioner that appointment was based on Kerik’s performance as the corrections commissioner (running the City’s prisons). He went into the notoriously disgusting Riker’s Island prison complex and did the impossible: cleaned the place up.
He was also an excellent police commissioner for the relatively brief period he held the job (his predecessors Bill Bratton and Howard Safir also did an outstanding job).
As for Kerik being "mobbed up," I seriously doubt that. That’s an allegation made by Giuliani enemies that as far as I know has never moved beyond being an allegation.
Rudy Giuliani was a great mayor for NYC. The difference in the place before and after was both factual and palpable. You could experience it directly just by being there.
He was also one of the most accessible politicians I’ve ever seen, and he would act on what he learned directly from citizens. He held a continuous series of "town hall meetings" around the City. He would have all of his commissioners and department heads sitting behind him as everyday folks made their way to the microphones and leveled complaints. Giuliani himself would hear each complaint, put it in perspective — was it something that was the responsibility of the City, or not, for instance — and then refer it directly and publically to the commissioners seated behind him. He was remarkably patient throughout these sessions, calm, intelligent, direct, thorough, but he would not take s**t from anyone. He asked for respect and gave it, but he would never let the sessions degenerate into wank-offs, which was in itself something to behold in NYC.
All that said, Rudy’s position on abortion, gay marriage, and guns are completely unacceptable to me. I’m open to shifts on those positions, but I don’t see that happening. I think that Rudy was well-suited to be mayor of New York, and did what many considered to be impossible, but he doesn’t meet the criteria on the above issues that I would require from a Republican candidate. Some would argue that half a conservative is better than none, but I think that the cultural issues are more important even than the national security issues for the health and survival of the American republic.
