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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Giuliani's immigration stance

Posted: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 4:17 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:

From NBC’s Carrie Dann
It's a bold goal, but Giuliani insists it's possible. 
 
"We can end illegal immigration. I promise you, we can end illegal immigration," the former New York City mayor said this morning in South Carolina, where, armed with PowerPoint slides and an emphasis on his experience as mayor of one of America's most diverse cities, he laid out his plan to reform immigration and close the porous national borders.
 
Giuliani focused on high-tech solutions like massive databases to track immigrants, as well as measures to encourage assimilation. He described how the creation of physical and "technological" fences, which would use heat and motion-sensing devices, could block the flow of illegals across the border. 
 
Giuliani acknowledged that his plan for border security would be pricey to enact, but was adamant that his plans are realistic and that the results will be worth it.
 
"Tracking that information and having a single database of all non-citizens is considerably less information than many credit card companies now track," he said. "None of this technology is like science fiction."
 
Giuliani outlined how requirements for English proficiency and tamper-proof ID cards would encourage legal immigrants to participate in American culture while discouraging illegals. 
 
He also simultaneously pitched assimilation and a book by one of his favorite world leaders. We already knew Giuliani is one of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's No. 1 fans. (Recall the mayor's glee at a New York Post headline that described the pro-American Sarkozy as "A French Rudy.")  But today, Giuliani gushed over Sarkozy's new book, in which Sarkozy promotes the American “melting pot” theme.
 
"It's one of the best books that I've read this summer," Giuliani said of Testimony, Sarkozy's pre-election manifesto about France's future in a rapidly globalizing world. "It's about a president of France who believes that America has the right ideas."

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he has insulted the first responders for the last time I hope.Tell the princess bride she will not be the first lady if you dare---these 2 ho's just need to go away like Tommy.
Rudy honey how will you pay for this master plan?

$456 BILLION on the war so far, that's $4,100 each household!
Ask the people in TEXAS to pay for their own border solutions.
strange how he embraced the illegals when they were stealing american jobs and working for slave wages in the big apple, he is just saying he's tough on immigration as a political strategy, the lure of cheap labor is what rudy and his party are all about, they want to drive down american wages and always have, illegals a large part of that strategy, rudy is a liar, imagine that
My vote is for Rudy Tudy, he's so cutie !
Speaking as a legal immigrant, America has an illegal immigration problem for only two reasons:
1) Mexico is poor
2) Legal immigration is a broken system, prohibitively expensive for low paid workers cluttered up with too much red tape.
Rudy, unless you have a plan to deal with these two facts, you are not going to do anything useful.
So, when does the "flip-flop" label come out?  Or is that reserved solely for Romney?  I guess "liar" is pretty good, too.
More GOP Paranoia, which means that like Dubya and Saddam, the Taxpayers will foot the 'Pricey' bill for it.  And the GOP'ers will no-bid themselves some more kickbacks.
At least he's presenting a plan and not just a promise that every candidate of either party is doing not just empty, pie in the sky campaign promises with no plan behind it.  Perhaps, we, as American voters should make all  candidates give us details on how they will make their promises come to light instead of empty words that make a good sound bite for the evening news. We deserve at least this much
Yeah, Rudy didn't happen to mention he's planning on sending illegal immigrants to Canada, Greenland and Iceland just like he sent the street people to Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island.  It ain't about solving the problem with this man, it's about looking good while he attempts it.
Maybe he thinks his plan will pay for itself with the cost of ID cards? Has someone checked if Haliburton has been lobbying Rudy with these plans for expensive tech fixes?  Do you think Rudy is ignoring the fact that most illegals cross the border legally and would not be stopped by his "technological" fences or is he just not that smart?

There is an easier way. Enforce the existing employment laws and raise the minimum wage and the jobs and demands for illegal workers will dry up. Why hasn't he thought of that.
Rudolph W. Giuliani is going to be absolutely crucified by Mitt Romney and others for his majestic flip-flop on illegal immigration.  We are going to be shown the text of Giuliani's 1994 warm welcome to the illegals again and again.
RUDY SUCKS AS ALL REPUBLICANS DO
A tamper-proof ID card for foreigners is useless. You know why? This is because when this happens, all illegal aliens will claim that they are US Citizens and thus don’t need this card. Today, many illegal workers work by using a counterfeit social security number and stating that they are US Citizens on their I-9 (employment) forms. How will this card do anything to stop that? It will do absolutely nothing…

The only way to make this work is to use a combination of E-Verify (the DHS’s electronic verification system) and a counterfeit proof social security card that every person must use to get a job (not an ID Card, just a card you use when you get a job). Using E-Verify you could use the photo scanning tool to electronically match the photos and other biometrics on that card with the card that is presented to the employer. On top of it, the information sent through E-Verify would be verified using government databases (social security and DHS databases). Now this strategy will actually make a difference…

How come Giuliani never mentions something like this….You know why?…It will actually work… something he doesn’t want…. All he wants to do is fool us into thinking that he is doing something…
Sound like he intends to give amnesty to all illegas that are here and that will come in the next year plus.
I agree, Adrian. If people want to come, they'll find a way - given the long border of undeveloped land. I suppose it is physically possible to build a 1500 mile Berlin-type wall, but I can't even imagine how much it would cost.
I am ashamed to be of a generation that thinks that building a fence and deporting working immigrants is a great idea. Is this the best we can do as a nation? Maybe the next generation will understand that our intentions were misguided by ignorance and fear not by overt racism.
I am sick snd tired of hearing people comparing a fence along our Mexico border to the Berlin Wall.  That fence was built to keep people in East Berlin, ours is to keep illegals out of the USA.  If Mexico built the fence, then the comparison would be relavent.
I am sick snd tired of hearing people comparing a fence along our Mexico border to the Berlin Wall.  That fence was built to keep people in East Berlin, ours is to keep illegals out of the USA.  If Mexico built the fence, then the comparison would be relavent.
The fox is already in the hen house! Low class and uneducated mexicans flood America, Endless amounts of other Illegals roam our streets and fill our prisons ad jails, after their acts against our laws! Our cities are filled with islmaic teachers who attack our laws and order! These teachers have come from the Mideastern countries with one agenda ""Destroy the American being""!

Look around and you see areas of concern, who are the people living next door to you,, drug dealers, gang members, a person who openly demands you listen to how much he or she hates America!

We have been invaded and not a shot fired, yet
we close our eyes to those who openly destroy what America is and the years it has taken to remain free!

The paper hangers in Wahington continue to dismantel our government and use self serving agenda to self bennefit!

We are screwed, but fries and a quarter pounder will save us all!
As always in our democratic republic, there are many issues to be addressed by serious candidates. Let's hear their plans for: socialism vs free enterprise; for a workable and secure immigration plan; for national defense agaisnst foreign and domestic enemies; for an education system that prepares future generations for the survival of freedom and opportunity; for the serious suppression of crime to protect the innocent; and health care access and research. Let's hear them out and probe their messages for, wisdom, experience and sincerity, and signs of greed, search for personal power, pride and hidden agendas. Meanwhile, we as voting citizens of a grand republic should weigh our opinions and comments in the same light. Right-on with responsible cross-fire in this democratic selection of our leaders.  
Dear "straight up", if you are going to give a bigoted and uninformed opinion on the immigration debate, why not have the guts to use your real name?

You seem to have missed a few pertinent facts:

1) Migration creates a net gain in jobs for American citizens

2) The vast majority of immigrants are law abiding, even most illegal immigrants break no law other than the already broken immigration law, they certainly do not "fill up your prisons". In fact, according to the US Justice Department only 6% of prison inmates are non-citizens, which makes non-citizens less likely to be criminals than citizens (since non-citizens are 7% of the US population).

3) Only 25% of Muslims in America are Middle Eastern immigrants, and most Muslim immigrants were legal immigrants, so your anti-Islam rant does not belong in this forum.

And the rest of the rant was complete nonsense.
Foster, Columbia, South Carolina

I am ashamed to be of a generation that thinks that building a fence and deporting working immigrants is a great idea. Is this the best we can do as a nation? Maybe the next generation will understand that our intentions were misguided by ignorance and fear not by overt racism.


Agreed.  Let them all in.  Our corporations need the cheap, slave-wage labor.  It keeps the prices down when we buy our produce and have our landscaping done.  The feds keep their social security money, so that benefits all of us both now, and in the long run. We need to make sure they don't learn English though because that would make them upwardly mobile.  Can't have them getting all uppity on us.

Otherwise, it is a great deal for us all the way around.

Rudy is not being upfront. He intends to give amnesty to 12 -20 million illegals. It is estimated in 10 years the unfunded entitlements for those illegals will be 2.2 trillion. Are you ready to pay?

To the poster who does not like deporation. Who is speaking for the legal immigrants who are waiting to come to America, are following the law, and who are getting push out of the way by the illegals breaking the law?

And if it turns out your credit has been ruined, you cannot buy the home you want, and your government benefits are permanently reduced because an illegal has stolen the use of your SSN, are you going to feel the same way? Bet you say, after they finish their jail term, deport them.
I have enormous concerns about illegal immigration. I see it as one of the great causes of my generation. It is right up there with terrorism. If we fail to act. If we fail to prevent the Third World from flooding into our grat land we will be culturally destroyed. The United States of America became the great nation that it is because it was founded by WESTERN MAN.  Each time we allow someone to come to our shores who is not WESTERN, we shake the very foundation that is who we are. Islam does not have the capacity to write an American  Constitution, yet some think a Muslim can come to America and our nation will be no different. It will be different. With each non western body on our land it becomes more and more different. If we do not act to stem this illegal immigration from every corner of the globe, we will perish. Our culture will be destroyed if we allow this nation to grow by another 100 million non western people over the next 50 years.
One of the bigger things that kills me about this whole immigration movement bullshit is the bullshit argument that Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, etc. were somehow "stolen" from Mexico by the big, bad, evil USA. Oh, because, that's right, Mexico was such a peace loving utopia with the most magnanimous leaders this world has ever seen until we provoked them into finally taking up arms (and, they would have us believe, they did so begrudgingly). GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK. Ever heard of the Constitution of 1824??? Where was your fucking peace-loving Mexican Utopia when Santa Anna decided to wipe that Constitution with his ass??? If any nation was ever a war-mongering, land-grabbing nation it was Mexico, and Spain before it. We stole the southwestern states??? Go cry me a river. Apparently history began when Mexico lost their land. Bullshit.

The only thing someone who professes this bullshit can say, while still being honest, is that we won, they lost, and they are bitter about it. And it's not as if their culture made such a huge impact at the time to even claim that it was a de facto Mexican state. This isn't the Rhineland. This isn't Alsace-Lorraine. The culture(s) in these regions, be they American, German, Scandinavian, Irish, American Indian, or anything else, not only rivaled but overpowered the "overwhelming" Mexican influence they claim they had. These regions were more Americanized than angry Mexicans today could ever hope to believe (why do you think Santa Anna rescinded the Constitution of 1824??? Texas was becoming too American and too hard to control under Mexican rule.). Most Mexican culture that is now commonplace in these regions is because of the gracious, freedom-loving culture of the US that embraces other cultures and allows outsiders to practice their customs freely, not because these regions are just "so obviously Mexican". If Mexico wants to claim these regions as their own, then I suggest they order their "army" to gather both their rifles, get on their squadron of mules, and just try to "take it back". Otherwise, shut the fuck up, stop taking advantage of a putrid welfare system, and, hey, here's an idea, maybe try to improve your own damn country instead of holding the US responsible for it being the shithole that it is.
Do a google search on "aid and abet illegal immigration".
Read the law.
It seems to me that a mayor who runs a santuary city is in violation of Federal immigration laws
Guliani should get 5 years in prision not 4 years
in the Whitehouse


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