Giuliani Watch: Zero Tolerance on the Border

No member of the current posse of presidential candidates has quite as much "Governing through Crime" under his or her belt than former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. During his two terms in that office, Giuliani closely associated himself with tough enforcement of the criminal code against squeegee men, young loiterers and other categories of feared residents. Giuliani also claims credit for the dramatic crime reductions that New York City experienced in that period (although better police management deserves much of the credit according to Frank Zimring)

Like George Bush, Giuliani has shown a particular penchant for working the associations between crime and terrorism (even while denying that the war on terror should be limited by the rules of criminal procedure). His latest statements, made ironically while touring devastation from the failed canals in New Orleans, suggest that security from terrorism requires zero tolerance toward illegal immigration.

According to an A.P. story published in the Sacramento Bee (read here)

"We need to end illegal immigration," he said. "If we do, a lot of things can happen, in terms of how you resolve everything here. But if you don't end illegal immigration, almost nothing is possible, because no matter what you do, things are going to get worse."

Giuliani is proposing "tamper-proof" ID cards and a database that would track people in the United States from foreign countries. He also suggested strengthening enforcement at border crossings.

No doubt terrorists might be able to exploit the same pathways that millions of undocumented workers have taken to cross into the US from Mexico (and perhaps Canada), but it is curious that virtually no such terrorists have been identified who arrived here that way, while all 19 of the 9/11 hijackers, and virtually all of those arrested for terrorism in the United Kingdom entered the respective countries legally.