Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge has announced that the US should legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants in the US.  According to Ridge, illegal immigrants do contribute to the country and to the communities where they reside.  Ridge stated that while he supports legalizing these immigrants, he does not propose granting them citizenship “because they violated the law to get here.”

Ridge made this declaration at a town hall meeting at Miami Dade Community College when he was asked about offering amnesty to illegal immigrants.  Ridge responded that he believes the majority of undocumented immigrants currently in the US do not pose a threat to national security and should be granted “some kind of legal status.”

Ridge has been heavily criticized for his remarks.  Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO), who recently introduced a guest worker bill and who is a critic of legalization, stated that grating amnesty to these immigrants would be dangerous to homeland security.  “The administration ought to dedicate more energy to enforcing our existing immigration laws and less on finding way to allow millions [of illegal immigrants] to skirt them.”

Mark Krikorian, Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that supports restrictive immigration policies, said that he believes legislation allowing for the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants will overwhelm the Department of Homeland Security, which according to Krikorian doesn’t “have the capacity to do the job they have now.”

However, many have viewed Ridge’s statement as a sign that the Bush administration is considering immigration reforms for illegal immigrants.  White House officials have said that the administration supports a temporary-worker program that would allow some workers to receive legal status, but White House Spokesman Scott McClellan declared that Ridge’s statements do not mean that the Bush administration supports “any broad amnesty” proposal.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate support legalization as well.  Arizona legislators Senator John McCain and Representatives Jim Kolbe and Jeff Flake have introduced HR 2899 that would legalize undocumented immigrants.  Another bill, S 1545, would make it easier for illegal immigrants who entered the US as children to obtain lawful permanent resident status.  However, many agree that Congress will probably not approve any major immigration legal reforms in 2004.

Estimates of the undocumented population in the US range typically from 8 million and 12 million.