Giuliani explains turnabout on illegal immigration

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

DERRY, N.H. -- On Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani declared in South Carolina, "I promise you, we can end illegal immigration." But 11 years ago, in a speech at Harvard, Giuliani said: "We're never ever going to be able to totally control immigration to a country that is as large as ours."

A video clip of the Harvard speech appeared Wednesday on the YouTube website. Today, at campaign stops in New Hampshire, the former New York City mayor said his beliefs have been consistent all those years, but technology has advanced to the point that the borders can now be controlled.

When he made his 1996 remarks at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Giuliani explained to reporters, "Back in the 1980s and early and mid-1990s, we did not do the things we can do today. We didn't have the technology .. didn't have the high-tech equipment we have now. I've made that point very often; totally consistent with the things I've been saying for years ... We now have that technology."

The campaigns of Giuliani and his GOP rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, have been trading shots this week on their respective records on illegal immigration, a key issue for many party activists.

In his stump speech and in answers to voters during a four-community swing today through southern New Hampshire, Giuliani continued to lay out his plans for tougher border security. At a stop for lunch at Susan's European Cafe in Hudson, Giuliani even sketched on some notebook paper a rough map of the US-Mexico border with ink dots to mark his proposed substations for border guards.

In addition to an authorized 700-mile physical wall, Giuliani advocates a "technological fence" along the remaining 1,300 or so miles of the border, using heat, motion, and other detection sensors that could be used to monitor the approach of persons trying to cross the border. He offered no cost estimate for the "technological fence" or up to 30 new border substations.