Mitt Romney on Rudolph Giuliani: "The People Who We Want In This City"

Dec 11, 2007 -- "That's The Federal Government's Problem. ... If You're Not Hurting Anybody In My City, I Don't Care." – Mayor Rudy Giuliani On Immigration (Bill Sammon, "Book Excerpt: In New York, Illegal Immigration Took A Back Seat To Making The City Safe," Washington Examiner, 12/11/07)

In A Recent Interview, Mayor Giuliani Says He Wanted To Turn In New York City's Illegal Aliens:

Article continues below...

Mayor Giuliani Now Claims He Wanted To Turn All Illegals In To Authorities, Saying, "I Would Have Turned All The People Over." "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.' ... '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.'" (Bill Sammon, "Book Excerpt: In New York, Illegal Immigration Took A Back Seat To Making The City Safe," Washington Examiner, 12/11/07)

FACT: As Mayor, Giuliani Welcomed Illegals, And Did Not Want To Turn Them In To Authorities:

But As Mayor, Giuliani Actually Invited More Illegal Immigrants To Come To New York City. "[Mr. Giuliani said,] '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.'" (Deborah Sontag, "New York Officials Welcome Immigrants, Legal Or Illegal," The New York Times, 6/10/94)

Mayor Giuliani Did Not Think That The INS Should Deport All Illegal Immigrants. MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI: "The Immigration and Naturalization Service isn't going to deport them. I don't think they should." (Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Remarks At The National Press Club, Washington, D.C., 5/27/97)

Giuliani Said The INS Would "Terrorize" Illegal Immigrants. GIULIANI: "What we're being asked to do in practicality is to turn names over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service will do nothing with those names but terrorize people." (NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday," 10/12/96)

Mayor Giuliani Said "I Don't Care," And Welcomed Illegal Immigrants. "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." (Bill Sammon, "Book Excerpt: In New York, Illegal Immigration Took A Back Seat To Making The City Safe," Washington Examiner, 12/11/07)

Source: Mitt Romney campaign