The policy has to be uniform.
An illegal gets into an altercation. He's arrested.
If the city sends him to the INS what happens to his wife, also illegal, who is wondering where he is? Does she go to the Police? Do they arrest her too? If not, why not?
It is the height of BS to blame a big city Mayor- particularly of NYC- of not doing the job that is the responsibility of the Federal government.
If he ignores illegals when it is his responsibility, then no second term.
You really are contorting yourself in a knot trying to cover Giuliani's @ss on this one. Contrary to what you've suggested here, the NYC policy was not uniform. New York's "sanctuary" policy differentiated between felonies and misdemeanors -- so the City would turn criminals over to the INS if they were arrested for felonies, but not for misdemeanors. In other words, the City wanted to deal with illegal immigrants in a manner that suited the city -- and only the city. If an illegal immigrant was picked up for a crime that could quickly be adjudicated in court and would likely end up with the perpetrator paying a fine and getting a suspended sentence, then they were perfectly willing to deal with him. But if it was a serious crime that would likely require a longer legal process (with a public defender, of course) and a lengthy prison sentence, then it suddenly became a priority to shuffle the perpetrator's @ss off onto the U.S. taxpayer.
It is the height of BS to blame a big city Mayor- particularly of NYC- of not doing the job that is the responsibility of the Federal government.
I agree with you 100%. That's why I don't criticize Giuliani for failing to have the NYPD function as an arm of the U.S. Department of Immigration & Naturalization Service. But I do contend that he ought to be sitting in a Federal prison right now for proudly and openly violating the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 even though that law had been upheld in the Federal courts every time it was challenged by the City of New York.
If he ignores illegals when it is his responsibility, then no second term.
I strongly suspect that if he ignores illegals when it is his responsibility, we can look forward to plenty of posts from you here on FR in 2012 in which you make lots of excuses for him.