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Ridge Calls for System Overhaul: Former Homeland Security Secretary Says More Should Be Done to Curb Illegals.

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Rory Sweeney, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Mar. 28--DALLAS TWP. -- It's not the immigrants illegally crossing the Mexican border that pose security risks; it's the way they get here, former Governor and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Monday evening.

"They're not coming here to blow us up. They're here to lay asphalt," Ridge said of the illegal immigrants.

The ways they find to sneak across the border are, however, grave security risks, he said.

America has "every right" to protect its border from illegal entrance, but he said people must recognize the major role illegal immigrants play in our economy.

"I think what's lacking in the border debate is being smart," he said.

Ridge was at the Irem Temple Country Club attending a fund-raising dinner for Lisa Baker, who is running for state Sen. Charles Lemmond's 20th District seat. Lemmond, for whom Baker used to be chief of staff, is not seeking re-election.

To curb the immigration problem, Ridge suggested a system of identifying non-citizens and legitimizing their ability to work, but added that there is "no such thing as amnesty" and that the immigrants should face some light penalties. The workers would be tracked and allowed to return to Mexico monthly, or perhaps quarterly.

He said that by incorporating the workers and employers in the system and harshly prosecuting those who don't comply, the illegal border crossings would "dry up."

"If a business would hire outside this process, I'd throw the book at them," he said.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, now the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, needs to be "reformed all together" and Mexican officials need to start policing their side of the border because "they don't help us now," Ridge said.

The argument that all Mexican immigrants will shirk a work-permit system and hide in America is a fallacy, he said. What they really want to do is make money here and live very comfortably in Mexico, a country that he said receives $20 billion a year from natives working in the United States.

"It's easy to say everyone wants to be an American," he said. "I think it's arrogance on our part."

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

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Source: The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

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