Romney failed to take action against "sanctuary cities" in Massachusetts.
Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Right facts, but they don't prove Romney weak on immigration
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Giuliani is on solid ground with this attack. There's no evidence that Romney spoke up or took action against those cities.
But Romney's inaction does not necessarily confirm the Giuliani campaign's larger point –- that Romney was soft on illegal immigration.
Late in his term, Romney approved a plan to deputize state troopers to help enforce immigration laws, although the plan was not implemented because it was rescinded by his successor, Gov. Deval Patrick.
We expect to see this allegation repeated as the campaign goes on, though. The Giuliani campaign has apparently been searching for cities with policies of not turning in illegal immigrants; they recently upped their count of Massachusetts sanctuary cities from three to six.
We rate Giuliani's claim as Mostly True because, although the facts are right, there's not enough evidence to back up Giuliani's larger point that Romney was not aggressive on illegal immigration.
Published: Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 12:00 a.m.
Subjects: Immigration
Sources:
Interviews: Tamar Jacoby, senior fellow, Manhattan Institute; Angela Kelley, director of the American Immigration Law Foundation's Immigration Policy Center.Boston Globe, GOP rivals spar on immigration, Aug. 15, 2007
Congressional Research Service, Enforcing Immigration Law: The Role of State and Local Law Enforcement, Aug. 14, 2006
Pew Hispanic Center, Unauthorized Migrants: Numbers and Characteristics, June 2005
CNN, Romney, Giuliani square off, Aug. 14, 2007
Executive Order 124, New York City Policy Concerning Aliens, Aug. 7, 1989
Rudy Giuliani campaign, Romney and Illegal Immigration, Nov. 28, 2007.
Written by: Bill Adair
Researched by: Caryn Baird, Angie Drobnic Holan
Edited by: Scott Montgomery
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No sanctuary from exaggeration
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