Giuliani Says He’ll Sue U.S. Over Immigrant Reforms

New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said he will sue the federal government today to challenge the constitutionality of U.S. immigration and welfare reforms targeting illegal immigrants.

In a speech Thursday night at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Giuliani said the immigration and welfare reforms recently passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton were “inherently unfair . . . and totally inconsistent with why America has become as great a place as it is.”

The reforms are aimed at clamping down on illegal immigration and contain provisions designed to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to take advantage of basic social services.

Since 1988, however, New York City has given illegal or undocumented immigrants access to critical services such as schools, police and hospitals and mandated that their names not be revealed to federal authorities, Giuliani said.

“I know that our executive order has angered some people in Washington and this year, they passed laws that would overturn it,” he said.

Under the new rules, New York City, which has between 400,000 and 450,000 illegal immigrants, would be facing between 70,000 and 80,000 children “out on the streets, out of school. . . . It makes the city less safe,” the mayor said.

Giuliani, the grandson of an immigrant, said he would base his legal challenge on the 10th Amendment, which gives states the right to determine policies not expressly granted to the federal government by the Constitution.

“The only thing I really know how to do is sue,” the former U.S. attorney jokingly told the crowd.