Let's move forward with immigration legislation

Intermountain Catholic

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The U.S. Senate immigration bill introduced on April 17 is a welcome start to a discussion that has been stalled on the federal level for many years. Our immigration system is broken. Because of this, children have been separated from their parents, workers abused, and women and children in particular face the horrors of human trafficking. I join my brothers in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and many others throughout the country in commending the senators who brought forth this legislation, and I pray that all the members of Congress will work, in good faith, to craft a humane solution to this problem.

I also pray that the recent tragic events in Boston will not be exploited in an attempt to derail the effort to fix the system. As I write this, two brothers are accused of planting the bombs that killed three people and wounded 180 others. Initial reports are that the brothers immigrated to the U.S. when they were children. Some people are using this as a questionable excuse to delay yet again the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.

This would be a terrible mistake. Acts of mass violence and immigration reform are very separate issues. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who were responsible for the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people and injured almost 700 others, were U.S. citizens. So is James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 last July at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. Neither of these acts spurred a discussion about the terroristic attributes of all people from the hometowns of the perpetrators. To assume that all immigrants are plotting against their adopted country would be the height of paranoia and prejudice.

We have longstanding proof that the vast majority of undocumented people living in the U.S. want nothing more than to abide by our laws and create better lives for themselves and their children. These are the people who cut our lawns, clean our houses and serve us in restaurants, but often they are cheated and abused by citizens who wield the heavy threat of deportation. We must help these people, not allow them to continue to be victimized because of our broken immigration system.

Since 2003, when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops published our pastoral letter "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope," we have advocated for a number of immigration reforms, including but not limited to a path to citizenship for the undocumented that is achievable, set within a reasonable time frame and includes the maximum number of persons; the protection and enhancement of the family-based immigration system – based on the union of a husband and a wife and their children – including the reduction of backlogs and the shortening of waiting times; and a program that allows low-skilled migrant workers to enter and work in the U.S. legally and safely.

Therefore, I and my brother bishops welcome the introduction of this new immigration legislation. Many of its major components seem to address our concerns: a path to citizenship, a permanent extension of the religious worker program, a new worker program for low-skilled workers to enter legally and work, and a new program for agricultural workers. Nevertheless, we are carefully examining the proposal’s details, and we may have suggestions on how it may be improved. We want to continue working with our legislators to reform the system so that immigrant families can remain together, migrant workers are not abused and exploited, and our fellow human beings do not lose their lives in the desert. Our goal is to create a new immigration system that balances the rule of law with respect for the basic human rights and dignity of the person and the unity of families.

Since its beginnings, our Church has followed God’s instruction to welcome the stranger. Here in the U.S., we have the opportunity now, this very moment, to extend a friendly hand to those who continue to help build our great country, which has been a nation of immigrants since its founding, welcoming to our shores people like Saint Frances Cabrini, Henry Kissinger and Yo-Yo Ma.

Many of those who would benefit from immigration reform legislation attend Catholic parishes and are served by Catholic schools and social service agencies around the country. These are our neighbors, our friends, the family next to us in the pew on Sundays. Now is the time to offer them the welcome they deserve and the permanent home they have sought and worked for these many years. Please join me in urging our federal legislators to pass just, humane legislation that will protect our borders but still provide hospitality for the strangers in our midst.