Yesterday in South Carolina, Rudy Giuliani promised he could and would “end illegal immigration.” But we got video of him back in 1996 saying that’s just not possible and you’ve just got to accept that.
It’s a pretty big flip-flop. But it’s also a pretty good example of a case where the problem isn’t what Rudy said ten years ago, it’s what he’s saying today.
If you look at what he said up at the Kennedy School ten years ago, it’s eminently reasonable and even eloquent. He says that you simply cannot completely control immigration in this country if you want to have the kind of America we have now, which is to say, an America which is not a police state. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have an immigration policy. You should. But with borders as big as ours, a population as diverse as ours and civil liberties as robust as ours it’s just not possible to put an end to illegal immigration. Not to mention the fact that you’d create pretty massive dislocations in the service economy.
What’s completely ridiculous is what Rudy’s saying now.
