Rudy's latest comments show that, despite his tough rhetoric, he has absolutely no intention of making a serious effort to tackle illegal immigration,

Responsibility for stopping illegal immigration belongs to the federal government and not to cities, states or businesses, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday.

Giuliani told small-business owners he would not punish them for unwittingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Federal officials are "trying to put the responsibility for this on employers, on city government, on state government," the former New York mayor said during a conference call arranged by the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

"The simple fact is, nobody but the federal government can stop people from coming into this country illegally, and the federal government does a very bad job of that," Giuliani said.

He said no other presidential candidate will solve the problem.

"If you elect a Democrat, they're just going to open the borders, and more illegals are going to come in," he said.

"And if you elect one of my (Republican) opponents, they want to crack down on cities and states, and they want to crack down on businesses, but they don't want to solve the problem," he said. "If I become president, in a very short while, you will not be able to walk into the United States without identifying yourselves."

Here's the reality: there is absolutely no way to effectively deal with illegal immigration without cracking down on businesses that knowingly hire them illegally. That's because the job magnet is what's drawing illegal immigrants to our country in the first place and holding them here once they arrive.

If you turn off the job magnet by cracking down on businesses that knowingly hire illegals, the overwhelming majority of illegals who are already here will leave and the torrent of illegals crossing our Southern border will slow to a trickle.

On the other hand, if you take the Rudy Giuliani approach, then the illegal immigration problem becomes unsolvable because you really can't round up and deport them all. The only practical way to get rid of most of the illegals who are already here is to make life as miserable for them as possible, cut off their sources of income, and thereby force them to self-deport.

Additionally, how difficult the job of the border patrol is going to be is largely dependent on the jobs magnet. If you cut it off, the number of people trying to get into the US will plunge. If you don't, it will probably be very difficult to stem human tide coming across our Southern border, especially since Rudy is eventually planning to hand out amnesty to illegals down the road. So, even if you get caught 10 times, it's still worth it to try again, because if you make it, you can get a job making more than you can at home and then just wait for Rudy to give you amnesty.

So anyone who says that they don't "want to crack down on businesses," as Rudy has, is absolutely, unconditionally not serious about dealing with illegal immigration.