The Newest Nativists

Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney show how fast common sense can be discarded.

THE CANDIDATES in the Republican debate Wednesday night made a great deal of sense about immigration -- when they were discussing measures they'd implemented as leaders forced to deal with reality. At least two of them turned to ugly nonsense as soon as they weren't defending their own records.

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, for example, explained why New York allowed illegal immigrants to receive some services when he was in charge. "If we didn't allow the children of illegal immigrants to go to school, we would have had 70,000 children on the streets at a time in which New York City was going through a massive crime wave," Mr. Giuliani said. "If we didn't allow illegals to report crimes, a lot of criminals would have gone free because they're the ones who had the information." Reasonable.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in turn took umbrage at Mr. Giuliani's suggestion that the governor should have reported illegal immigrants doing yard work at his home. "Are you suggesting, Mayor, that if you have a company that you hired who provide a service, that you now are responsible for going out and checking the employees of that company, particularly those that might look different or don't have an accent like yours, and ask for their papers -- I don't think that's American, number one." Eloquent.

And former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee explained why he wanted to offer academic scholarships to the children of illegal immigrants if they excelled in Arkansas schools, were drug- and alcohol-free and were seeking U.S. citizenship. "It accomplished two things that we knew we wanted to do," Mr. Huckabee said, "and that is, number one, bring people from illegal status to legal status. And the second thing, we wanted people to be taxpayers, not tax-takers." That, too, makes the kind of sense that both Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani once seemed to understand.

Yet Mr. Romney rounded on Mr. Huckabee for supporting the scholarships, and Mr. Giuliani rounded on Mr. Romney for his "sanctuary mansion." As governor and mayor they had to deal with reality -- that this country benefits from immigrant labor, that 12 million illegal immigrants are not going to be corralled and deported, and so on. As candidates, Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney are content to tell voters what they think they want to hear, a particular Romney specialty.

Only Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mr. Huckabee on Wednesday night declined to join in the fantasy that fences and border guards alone can answer the nation's immigration questions. Mr. McCain said he understands voter anger and believes that the government must respond by sealing the border first, but he insisted that the challenge of the 12 million undocumented migrants, and the need for guest labor, eventually must be dealt with, too. "And we need to sit down as Americans and recognize these are God's children as well," Mr. McCain said.

For his part, Mr. Huckabee said, "In all due respect, we are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did." Maybe so. You wouldn't know it from listening to the putative leaders of the Republican Party.