Giuliani talks immigration, health care

AIKEN — Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani vowed Tuesday to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States by closely tracking visitors to the country and beefing up border security.

"We can end illegal immigration. I promise you, we can end illegal immigration," the former New York mayor said at a community center — the first of the day's two stops in this early voting state.

Giuliani said he would require a uniform identification card for foreign workers and students and create a database to track the legal status of visitors to the country.

Giuliani wants a tamperproof ID card that includes fingerprinting for everyone entering the country and a central database to track when they leave.

The ID card and other immigration proposals have been part of Giuliani's campaign speeches for several months.

In recent days, rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor whose state has been home to a few self-proclaimed "sanctuary cities," such as Cambridge, Mass., repeatedly has criticized Giuliani, arguing that he supported illegal immigration when he was mayor. Giuliani rejected the charge.

Romney argues that Giuliani "instructed city workers not to provide information to the federal government that would allow them to enforce the law. New York City was the poster child for sanctuary cities in the country."

But New York never has officially declared itself a "sanctuary city." Last month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told Congress that the city protects residents' confidentiality when they report a crime or seek medical care or education — a local policy that dates to 1988.

Giuliani defended and supported that executive order while mayor. In South Carolina on Tuesday, Giuliani did not take questions from reporters.

During his Columbia stop, Giuliani told a crowd of about 100 that competition, tax credits and high deductibles would do more to increase the spread of health care than expanding government programs. He slammed plans for universal health care, something long backed by Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton.

"What Hillary wants to do is not an American solution to the problem. It's a solution that marches us — and boy do they get angry about this, but sometimes the truth hurts — it marches us right to socialized medicine," he said.