Giuliani Urges Rejection of Bill to Deny Illegal Immigrants Schooling

Highlighting deep fissures within Republican ranks on immigration policy, New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani urged Congress Thursday not to approve legislation to remove illegal immigrant children from public schools and suggested that California Gov. Pete Wilson and other backers of the measure are motivated by fear.

The Republican mayor said during a Washington visit that the proposal would devastate America’s cities by forcing thousands of school-age children into the streets.

Giuliani urged Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, not to heed his campaign advisors--including Wilson--on the issue. Instead, he said, Dole should act like a statesman and think about what is best for America.

“What he might gain by taking the politically popular position might not be as lasting as showing he’s a leader,” Giuliani said in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace here.

The controversial proposal, inserted in a House immigration bill by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), would give states the option of denying public schooling to illegal immigrant children. The Senate legislation does not include the provision and House-Senate conferees are now debating whether to include it in the compromise version of the measure--and possibly bring a veto.

Giuliani, the grandson of Italian immigrants, stands apart from many of his party’s leaders on immigration policy. He opposes reductions in legal immigration and expresses far more tolerance toward illegal immigration.

“Among people who are illegal immigrants or undocumented are good people, average people and bad people,” Giuliani said.

“We’re never going to have a perfect solution to illegal immigration,” he said later. “If this bill passes--and I hope it doesn’t--you’re still going to have many, many illegal immigrants in this country.”

Under the bill, each state would decide if illegal immigrant children would be barred from its public schools. Giuliani said that the effect would be to create a patchwork of differing immigration policies that would affect the entire nation.

In contrast to Giuliani’s strong stand, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, also a Republican, has been silent on the issue. His spokeswoman, however, suggested Thursday that Riordan has problems with Gallegly’s amendment.

“The mayor has said no one should be denied a public education, health care and nutrition and he still believes that,” spokeswoman Noelia Rodriguez said. “Those are basic rights people are entitled to.”

Still, some immigrant rights groups criticized Riordan for not taking a more public stance against the legislation--as County Supervisor Gloria Molina, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters did at a press conference in Los Angeles earlier this week.

“The silence is deafening,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum. “For the mayor of one of America’s top gateway cities to stand on the sidelines while Congress is on the verge of throwing tens of thousands of children out of school is a dereliction of his leadership responsibilities.”

Wilson, a prime backer of the measure, contends that opponents are exaggerating when they suggest that illegal immigrant children will be led to lives of crime if they are barred from school.

“That’s the big lie,” said Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh. “The bottom line is we expect and would demand that the federal government repatriate the children and their families who are in the country illegally.”

The governor agrees that every child deserves an education, Walsh said. But the question remains, he said, whether Sacramento should pay for it instead of “Ottawa, Mexico City, Guatamala City and San Salvador.”