Posted on 09/08/2007 9:17:32 PM PDT by blogsforthompson.com
Rudy Giuliani in an interview yesterday on the Glenn Beck program asserted that illegal immigration is not a crime and should not be a crime! In some of the most stunning words imaginable, Giuliani just confirmed everything opponents of illegal immigration have been saying about him -- that he is soft on illegal aliens. Fred Thompson has asserted that...........
(Excerpt) Read more at blogsforfredthompson.com ...
Rudy esta muy loco
I’m going to enjoy watching this pompous, smirking ass crash and burn.
Great timing by the Thompson campaign. This will cost Rudy a lot of votes.
Thompson’s campaign is pounding this. Great timing by Fred. They were given a gift by Rudy and Thompson’s campaign seized the opportunity.
Can’t wait to see the eventual ads that will appear.
Giuliani … Not a chance in Hell.
stick a fork in’im.
Rudy wasn’t getting my vote anyway.
I think he just went into a tail spin, bye then...
Problem is that Fred's Senate voting record on immigration is almost 100% pro-immigration. If he tries to make an issue out of Rootytoot's position on immigration his voting record will be brought up, and it will show him to have voted against almost every bill that would have placed more restrictions on immigration and heavier penalties on employers who hire illegals.
I like Fred' position on many other issues and I will probably vote for him unless a more conservative candidate with equal name recognition announces, but I don't like his record on immigration issues. He is singing an altogether different tune on immigration now that he's running for president, but I can't easily overlook how he voted on that issue when he was in the Senate.
New York City is New York City is New York City. Guliani is proving himself to be little more than a taller, more credible, more appealing, Koch/Bloomberg.
How in the world can he say that being ILLEGAL,,,,Rudy, the operative word there is ILLEGAL,,,,is NOT a crime. He can do his legal Clintonesque legal parsing with his Rudy-Apologists!
Nothing like SELECTIVE enforcement of the law from a LIBERAL!!! Unbelievable.
Rudy can take a hike!!
And THIS is his defense of 'sanctuary cities'?? I hope the other candidates 'call him on that one' at the next debate!!! Fred,,,are you listening?
That’s not true.
There is a lot of misinformation floating around out there about all candidates and all issues. In order to clarify Thompson’s immigration stance specifically, I looked at S. 1664, the most significant immigration enforcement bill that came up during his time in the senate. Because cherrypicking factoids can easily distort the record (the reporting from Iraq is a good example of this), I catalogued every Thompson vote on every amendment that was brought to the senate floor during the debate on this bill.
Here’s my summary, followed by the actual votes so people can draw their own conclusions.
In a nutshell, Thompson voted in favor of the toughest, most-extensive anti-illegal-immigration bill that came up during his tenure in the Senate. In the debate on this bill, he voted consistently against repeated attempts to extend welfare benefits to both legal and illegal immigrants, voted against attempts to make deportation more difficult, and voted for measures that toughened border enforcement and made it easier for INS agents to arrest illegals.
He did vote against two amendments dealing with chain migration, because it had been established in the Judiciary committee that questions of legal immigration would be dealt separately from illegal immigration. He also voted against efforts to shut down debate on the Abraham amendment and implement a defacto social security national ID card for employment enforcement. Finally, he voted against establishing a $100 million employer verification office within the INS. I don’t have his own testimony to know why he voted against this, but in the floor debate there were questions about the effectiveness of the employer verification program proposed in that bill (e.g., a program that forced employers to verify all applicants could have negative implications for government intrusion into citizens’ lives; a program that only verified non-citizens would be ineffective because illegals could just claim to be citizens to avoid verification).
I’ve also learned in my research that several of the claims against Thompson related to his immigration record are misleading or outright false. For example, he did *not* vote for amnesty for Cuban and Nicaraguan illegal immigrants, as Numbers USA has reported (more information on the Mack amendment is upthread).
In addition, there have been reports slamming Thompson for voting against several Simpson amendments (e.g., claiming that he opposed Simpson’s attempt to increase penalties for falsely claiming citizenship). These claims are either ignorant or deliberate misrepresentation. What actually happened was that Teddy Kennedy tried to attach a minimim wage hike to three Simpson anti-immigration amendments. This forced Simpson — along with Thompson and the other senate republicans — to vote against his own amendments to block Kennedy’s little games.
Here are the votes:
-Thompson voted against Chafee’s proposal “to provide that the emergency benefits available to illegal immigrants also are made available to legal immigrants.” (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00106)
-Thompson voted against Graham’s amendment 3759 that would permit state and local governments to ignore federal immigration enforcement law if enforcement compliance cost more than would be saved in benefits (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00105)
-Thompson voted against Graham’s amendment 3764 that would have allowed legal immigrants who arrived before enactment of the new law to continue collecting Medicaid (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00104).
-Thompson voted against Simon’s amendment 3813 that would have made it easier for legal immigrants who arrived before enactment of the new law to collect welfare (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00103).
-Thompson voted against Simon’s amendment 3810 that would have made it easier for legal immigrants who became disabled after arriving in the US to collect welfare (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00102).
-Thompson voted against tabling/killing Abraham’s amendment that aimed to prevent use of social security cards as a national ID card (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00101)
-Thompson voted against Leahy’s amendment 3780 that would have made it harder to deport illegal immigrants who claimed persecution (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00100)
-Thompson voted against Bradley’s amendment 3790 that would establish a $100 million office of employer sanctions within the INS (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00099)
-Thompson voted for Feinstein’s amendment 3776 that would allow deportation notices to be printed in languages other than English ((http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00098)
-Thompson voted against Simon’s amendment 3809 that would have allowed legal immigrants to stay even if they had received some types of public assistance for a year or more (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00097)
-Thompson voted against Kennedy’s amendment 3816 that would have limited employers’ ability to demand additional documents for employee verification (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00096)
Thompson was absent on 4/29-4/30/96
-Thompson voted with other Republicans (including Simpson) to table Simpson’s amendment 3671 (penalties for falsely claiming citizenship) because Kennedy attempted to attach a minimum wage raise to it (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00088)
-Thompson voted with other Republicans (including Simpson) to table Simpson’s amendment 3670 (pilot program for nonimmigrant foreign students) because Kennedy attempted to attach a minimum wage raise to it (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00087)
-Thompson voted with other Republicans (including Simpson) to table Simpson’s amendment 3669 (prevention of free education for some immigrants) because Kennedy attempted to attach a minimum wage raise to it (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00086)
-Thompson voted to push the overall bill forward in a party-line vote (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00085)
-Thompson voted to table Feinstein amendment 3740 related to chain migration on the grounds that legal immigration should be addressed separately ( http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00084)
-Thompson voted against Simpson amendment 3739 related to chain migration on the grounds that legal immigration should be addressed separately (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00083)
-Thompson voted to table Dorgan’s amendment 3667 that social security should be excluded from any balanced budget amendment (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00083)
-Thompson was one of only 20 senators to vote in favor of repealing the ban on INS agents searching open fields if they have probable cause to believe an illegal act has occured (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00080)
No need to lump Ed Koch in there with Bloomie and Rudy. Ed’s a lib, but he’s a good man and an intellectually honest guy. Frankly, I find him stronger on WOT related issues than Rudy.
“I’m going to enjoy watching this pompous, smirking ass crash and burn.”
I can’t believe he’s made it this far... As the primaries draw ever closer, I’m getting concerned. Comments like this will destroy him, IF the other candidates take off the kid gloves and use them! I realize no one wants to weaken what looks to be our probable nominee - but he needs to be taken out before we even reach that point!!!
It is a crime, but it's only a misdemeanor. This is not true of some of the other things illegal aliens do as a matter of course, such using fraudulent social security numbers/cards, driving without insurance or proof of fiscal responsibility, driving while intoxicated, and many others.
The penalty for a first offense is up to six months in jail or prison and/or a fine of $50 to $250. But the charge is rarely used, even when people are caught at the border, according to a Congressional Research Service report on May 3. Most are deported or allowed to leave the U.S. voluntarily to avoid overwhelming courts and detention centers, the report said.
Applying the misdemeanor offense in the interior of the U.S. is even rarer, the report said. The most common charge against those caught without authorization in the U.S. is "unlawful presence," a civil offense. The penalty is removal, and an immigrant can be detained in the meantime.
The report said illegal entry is difficult to prosecute in the interior because it must be proved, not just inferred, that the person entered illegally.
He follows “Amnesty John” and Lindsey Graham into a steep nosedive with the GOP.
Doesn’t he know how most Americans feel about this subject, particularly Republicans.
IT IS TIME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT BORDER SECURITY, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO BREAK THE LAW or are members of gangs, etc...
Whats wrong with that? Its being pro ILLEGAL immigration that killed Rudy!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.