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December 10, 2003

Now Tom Ridge wants to Legalize Illegal Immigrants.

He appears to be suggesting some sort of alternate form of citizenship:

“The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our immigration policy is and then enforce it,” Ridge said at a town hall meeting at Miami-Dade Community College.

...

“I’m not saying make them citizens, because they violated the law to get here,” he said. “So you don’t reward that type of conduct by turning over a citizenship certificate. You determine how you can legalize their presence, then, as a country, you make a decision that from this day forward, from this day forward, this is the process of entry, and if you violate that process of entry we have the resources to cope with it.”

Sounds to me like a second-class citizenship status. I don’t think that’s the way to go here. Any kind of class-based society is out of keeping with our heritage as Americans.

I do give Tom credit for trying to think outside the box on the question of all these illegal immigrants.