Giuliani Toughens Rhetoric on Immigration

Mayor Giuliani took another step today toward recasting himself as tough on illegal immigration in an effort that seemed designed to staunch criticism from his chief Republican rival for the presidential nomination, Mitt Romney.

Mr. Giuliani told an audience of more than 300 people in the early primary state of South Carolina that if elected president he would secure the country's borders and would "identify every non-citizen in the country."

"We can end illegal immigration. I promise you we can end illegal immigration," Mr. Giuliani told the crowd in South Carolina this morning, according to the Associated Press. Mr. Giuliani's campaign declined to send out the full-text of his speech.

The former mayor's immigration platform includes the creation of a "tamper-proof" biometric identification cards for any non-American who is working or going to school in the country and a "national database of foreigners," that would track an individual's legal status.

The former New York City mayor has also vowed to build a fence along the American border, to deploy 20,000 board patrol agents, to deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes, and to make sure that all individuals know how to read and write English before they are granted American citizenship.

The immigration speech comes less than a week after Mr. Romney chided Mr. Giuliani as lax on illegal immigration.

Mr. Giuliani, who was viewed as friendly to immigrants when he was mayor, has defended his record, saying that New York had the lowest number of per capital illegal immigrants of any major city when he was in office.

Yesterday his campaign announced the appointment of seven immigration advisors and sent out a memo detailing some of the harder line comments he made on illegal immigration in the early 1980s.

Meanwhile, Mr. Romney was in San Diego yesterday making the case for a stronger crackdown on those who employ illegal immigrants.