Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Romney blasts 'sanctuary cities' for attracting illegal immigrants


Sure enough. NYC has a dot associated with its obvious, well-established sanctuary-city label.

Go here to read, listen, and even watch what Mitt's got on this topic.

"Immigration laws don't work if they're ignored," the ad's announcer states. "That's the problem with cities like Newark, San Francisco and New York City that adopt sanctuary policies. Sanctuary cities become magnets that encourage illegal immigration and undermine secure borders."

"Legal immigration is great," Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, himself says in the ad. "But illegal immigration, that we've got to end. And amnesty is not the way to do it."

Here's a link to the full story on Rudy's true immigration-related past. Some on the executive order he used below:

The executive order “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,” Giuliani maintained. “There are times when undocumented immigrants must have a substantial degree of protection,” he said.

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.”

Today, Rudy dodges the issue of illegal immigration support by saying New York is a model safe big city--not supporting illegality of any kind. He quietly ignores Mitt's specific charges about illegal immigration by broadening the discussion to his supposed management of all other forms of big-city illegal activity: crime, etc. He conveniently missed the entire point. But his above quote makes it pretty simple where he used to stand on this issue.

And Bloomberg (current NYC mayor) in the above video extols the virtues of immigration--not mentioning whether he refers to the legal or illegal variety. We have no problem with legal immigration. In fact, it's essential. But, to invite illegal immigration is devastating.

A rigorous process has long been associated with immigration--even in the days of Ellis Island. And Mitt gets it.

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