I won't defend Giuliani, but I'll just point out two things: 1) In 1996 there was a lot less concern about illegal immigration than there is now; 2) In 1996 Giuliani was Mayor of New York, where immigration is not a big problem.
I don't think he could be worse than Bush has been, but I don't guarantee it. I just don't think all these early remarks necessarily indicate the positions he would take now as POTUS, which has very different responsibilities from being mayor of NY. He did a first-rate job as mayor. I'm still waiting and thinking about some of the issues if he continues to lead in the presidential race.
I'm more and more concluding that Romney is a flipper flopper. Giuliani is not, but that's not necessarily a good thing if he sticks to bad positions. They weren't much of a problem when he was mayor, but they would be a problem if he were POTUS--unless he understands that and changes accordingly.
I will point out that the book by Peter Brimelow, called "Alien Nation" came out in 1995 and was in paperback in 1996. If you have read this book, as I have, you will thus be aware that the problem of illegal immigration was something that people were well aware of in 1996.
In the Hannity "interview", I could tell at least two things: a) Rudy was very happy that Hannity wasn't going to ask him any tough questions, and b) on immigration, Rudy is full of it and he knows it. His immigration spiel in the "interview" was the same we've heard time and again from Bush and the rest.
Rudy's views on immigration, especially illegals has not changed. NYC is a sanctuary city for illegals.
Cicero, I live in San Diego, the population of my city and county is far more than your entire state.
The southern border of San Diego runs along Mexico.
We have tens of thousands of illegals in San Diego costing us mega millions of dollars a year, not to mention
seeing southern CA turn into an annex of Tijuana.
California is Mexico's HMO
I don't think immigration, over the last 30 to 40 years, has been a terrible problem for America, as I tried to point out. I think immigration has worked pretty well. I think it has areas of problems. I think the federal government isn't doing enough about illegal immigration--focusing on the right people, the people that are committing crime. But by and large, I don't think the immigration system needs tremendous reforms.
Presuming he includes illegal immigrants amongst those the federal government hasn't done enough about, he's essentially correct. Of course as you point out, this isn't 1996, and there's the problem of th 10-20 million illegals the government hasn't done anything about which Rudy has to address. In fact most issues likely to face the country in 2008 he hasn't really addressed in any detail. Including the war in Iraq and the war on terror, which are said to be his strengths.
As to Giuliani being Mayor of New York city, where immigration wasn't a big problem, that may be true. But he was speaking out on federal legislation and federal policy, not New York city policy. And he was talking about what he thought was good for America, not for New York. To me, it demonstrates that he had a narrow, short-sighted view of what was happening in the country, relying only on his view from NY. His comments about immigrant school children was equally lacking in knowledge of what was happening across the nation. The days of children of immigrants being the most disciplined and hardworking ended a generation ago, IMO. Schools are ridden with violence and immigrant gangs (and others) and the quality of education for all students is declining due to language diversity. This has been the situation for at least the last decade, not just today. Giuliani's lack of vision and foresight on this issue is disappointing.
"I think we want to continue to allow a lot of poor people to come into America." WHAT?!!?
The reason there's more concern NOW is that there wasn't ANY back in 1996. We're paying for the sins of the past and some of these guys, Rudy included with Dubya, still don't get it.
Past performance is the ONLY true indicator of future performance.
I don't blame him too much for his statements on illegal immigration while mayor of NYC -- mainly because New York City's economy would collapse without illegal immigrants. However, I do believe that his approach to illegal immigration in the aftermath of the 1996 Federal immigration reform law basically disqualifies him from ever holding public office in the U.S. again for as long as he lives.
I think he is right on immigration - we don't want to be seen as being anti-immigration.
The issue is ILLEGAL immigration and lack of assimilation.
Uh, you ever been to Corona, University Heights, Fordham, Jackson Heights, Port Richmond?