Mitt Romney has slammed Republican presidential rival Rudy Giuliani for claiming that as New York City mayor, his sanctuary policies protecting illegal immigrants helped create a “legal, lawful society.”
Giuliani said in remarks reported by ABC News on Monday: “The policies that I utilized with regard to illegal immigration were, in the context of overall policies, probably the most successful in the history of the country in creating an orderly, legal, lawful society.”
As mayor, Giuliani refused to order city workers to turn over information about illegal aliens to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Romney responded to Giuliani’s comments: “Today’s statement by Mayor Giuliani that his sanctuary policies toward illegal aliens created an ‘orderly’ and ‘lawful’ society turns logic on its head. You don’t promote a lawful society by condoning illegality.
“As governor, I opposed driver’s licenses for illegals, vetoed tuition breaks for illegals, and combated sanctuary city policies by authorizing the state police to enforce federal immigration law.
“As president, I will secure the border and reject sanctuary policies by cities, states, or the federal government.”
Romney said during a campaign stop in Washington state that he would withhold federal funds from states that give higher education grants to children of illegal immigrants and driver’s licenses to undocumented workers, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
And several days earlier in California he declared that Giuliani “welcomed illegal aliens to the city. The sanctuary state of mind is one of the reasons we have so many illegal immigrants in our country today.”
Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella responded in a statement that when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, “the number of illegal immigrants skyrocketed, while he recommended millions of dollars in state aid to numerous sanctuary cities and to companies employing illegal immigrants, not to mention the illegals working on his own lawn.”
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