Friday, September 7, 2007

This SHOULD Sink Giuliani

Glann Beck (no, I don't know who he is either--but he is apparently a call-in talk radio show pundit) interviewed Giuliani today. Here is a partial transcript of the exchange on Illegal Immigration:
GLENN: Right. But isn't illegal immigration a crime in and of itself?

GIULIANI: No.

GLENN: Aren't you saying --

GIULIANI: Glenn --

GLENN: You're protecting criminals by saying that being treated as a criminal is unfair.

GIULIANI: Glenn, it's not a crime. I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime.

GLENN: It's a misdemeanor but if you've been nailed, it is a crime. If you've been nailed, ship back and come back, it is a crime.

GIULIANI: Glenn, being an illegal immigrant, the 400,000 were not prosecuted for crimes by the federal government, nor could they be. I was U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York. So believe me, I know this. In fact, when you throw an immigrant out of the country, it's not a criminal proceeding. It's a civil proceeding.

GLENN: Is it --

GIULIANI: One of the things that congress wanted to do a year ago is to make it a crime, which indicates that it isn't.

GLENN: Should it be?

GIULIANI: Should it be? No, it shouldn't be because the government wouldn't be able to prosecute it. We couldn't prosecute 12 million people. We have only 2 million people in jail right now for all the crimes that are committed in the country, 2.5 million. If you were to make it a crime, you would have to take the resources of the criminal justice system and increase it by about 6. In other words, you'd have to take all the 800,000 police, and who knows how many police we would have to have.
This is weird logic. As a prosecutor he could not prosecute, so they have not committed a crime. So they are here "illegally" but it is not a crime!?! Incredible. This is a core subject of the election that should give FDT a solid leg to compete against Giuliani.

Elephant Biz quotes the actual federal code.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was very excited when I heard Fred Thompson was running.

BUT then I heard that James Carville's wife was on Fred Thompson's Campaign.

Forget it. Obviously Fred Thompson isn't the candidate we all thought he was. He is merely an actor.

Joel Harris said...

I'm not sure why a political strategist should make you think that Fred is "merely an actor". I'm particularly not sure what you have against Matalin as she has been a stalwart Republican strategist for about 15 years.

I would like to think that you would make your decision based on his positions--both expressed and acted upon.