WASHINGTON — After Congress passed a landmark welfare law with support from both parties, one prominent mayor became furious. His concern: a provision that would lead, he believed, to the "inhumane" treatment of illegal immigrants. He promptly dispatched his lawyers to file suit against the federal government.
This was no bleeding-heart liberal championing the rights of illegal immigrants, but the Republican mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani.
"I believe the anti-immigration movement in America is one of our most serious public problems," Giuliani said in announcing the lawsuit in 1996. "I am speaking out and filing this action because I believe that a threat to immigration can be a threat to the future of our country."
Today Giuliani is running for president, and one of his leading GOP rivals, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is pointing to his record as mayor to accuse him of being soft on illegal immigration. That charge threatens to undercut the image Giuliani has sought to cultivate as the law-and-order champion best equipped to keep the U.S. safe.
Under attack, Giuliani is striking a tougher, less welcoming tone toward illegal immigrants. He is calling for stricter border control, tamper-proof identification cards for noncitizens and the deportation of foreign-born criminals.
But his substantial record on immigration is likely to ensure that the issue remains a point of tension throughout the primary campaign. Indeed, immigration is one of several social issues -- including abortion and gun control -- on which Giuliani's relatively liberal stances have been fodder for rivals who say he has proved himself out of step with the conservative base.
As mayor, Giuliani was the rare Republican who rolled out the welcome mat for legal and illegal immigrants. He took his legal challenge to the welfare law as far as he could, appealing to the Supreme Court. He lobbied Congress against other measures he considered punitive. Although he worked to deport illegal immigrants who committed crimes, he defended others as valuable contributors to the city's economy and culture.
"Some of the hardest-working and most productive people in this city are undocumented aliens," he said in 1994. "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city."
