Posted on 12/17/2003 10:15:36 AM PST by truthandlife
Shock and awe -- that's how critics have reacted to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's proposal to offer citizenship to more than eight million illegal aliens.
Congressman Tom Tancredo says he is very discouraged by the suggestion that some kind of legal status needs to be conferred on those who are in the U.S. illegally. The Colorado Republican, who is chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, confesses he is not happy with Ridge's comments, made during a recent town hall meeting in Miami.
Ridge said that America must come to grips with the 8 to 12 million illegal aliens now in the country "to afford them some kind of legal status some way ... but also as a country decide what our immigration policy should be." Tancredo takes issue with Ridge.
"I'm so discouraged that the Secretary of Homeland Security said this country has to develop an immigration policy and then try to enforce it," the congressman says. "Well, you know what? We have one, Mr. Secretary. It's against the law to come into this country without our permission. If you do, you're supposed to be deported."
Tancredo has his own suggestion for the Security Secretary. "If he doesn't like the law, he should come to Congress, to the President, and ask to have it be changed. But he cannot pick and choose what laws he wants to enforce and which ones he does not."
The lawmaker from Colorado adds that if Ridge is not willing to enforce immigration laws, he should resign.
Phil Kent of the American Immigration Control Foundation thinks that anyone who is in favor of immigration reform and concerned about the country's growing population ought to be "shocked" by what the Homeland Security head said. He says based on Ridge's comments, it appears the Bush Administration has yet to learn the lessons of history.
"We have had two amnesties already -- one in 1986 and one in 1990," Kent explains. "All that does besides rewarding lawbreakers -- people who sneak into our country ahead of the line of the legal immigrants -- is undermine homeland security."
During Monday's final press conference of the year, President Bush said his administration will oppose any blanket amnesty program. Kent expects Ridge will back down on his proposal soon.
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