I don't watch TV news or follow many issues in-depth via other sources, but it's impossible not to notice the rancor these days around immigration reform. It seems to me that the US does have a particularly large problem with illegal immigration across its southern border, and that we have, perhaps (but how does one know for sure?), millions of illegal or undocumented immigrants in the US.
The illegal immigrants are working here, raising families, going to church, being parts of communities, and dying here. Most of them are good, hard-working, honest folks, and there are some who are troublesome criminals, too. In my opinion, they are fellow members of the human race, with the same good and bad qualities as the rest of us. If any one of us was in their shoes, would we have done anything different?
So I wondered what does my church have to say about this immigration issue? I did a bit of searching and found that the US and Mexican bishops got together a few years ago to produce a document titled Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope. They also established an advocacy web site called Justice for Immigrants, which has a couple nice FAQ's and backgrounders on Catholic social teaching for immigration. Generally, their position, which came out in 2005, sounds in line with the recently proposed legislation from President Bush:
Does the Catholic Church support illegal immigration?
The Catholic Bishops do not condone unlawful entry or circumventions of our nation’s immigration laws. The bishops believe that reforms are necessary in order for our nation’s immigration system to respond to the realities of separated families and labor demands that compel people to immigrate to the United States, whether in an authorized or unauthorized fashion.
Our nation’s economy demands foreign labor, yet there are insufficient visas to meet this demand. Close family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents face interminable separations, sometimes of twenty years or longer, due to backlogs of available visas. U.S. immigration laws and policies need to be updated to reflect these realties.
Does the Catholic Church support “amnesty”?
The Catholic bishops are proposing an earned legalization for those in this country in an unauthorized status and who have built up equities and are otherwise admissible. “Amnesty,” as commonly understood, implies a pardon and a reward for those who did not obey immigration laws, creating inequities for those who wait for legal entry. The bishops’ proposal is not an “amnesty.”
The Bishops’ earned legalization proposal provides a window of opportunity for undocumented immigrants who are already living in our communities and contributing to our nation to come forward, pay a fine and application fee, go through rigorous criminal background checks and security screenings, demonstrate that they have paid taxes and are learning English, and obtain a visa that could lead to permanent residency, over time.
August 22, 2005
Their proposal and the legislation President Bush proposed makes sense to me, though I realize there's something in it for every side to dislike. Maybe we're at the point where enough people recognize the current way of handling immigration - legal and illegal - no longer fits the reality of the world we live in? The process of getting useful legislation passed will likely be messy, disjointed and acrimonious but at least, hopefully, we'll fix more than we break.
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