Promoting solutions
to the immigration crisis
Part 2 of 2
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
In the national debate about immigration reform, the Catholic Church has been clear about ensuring that the dignity of the immigrant is respected and that families are safeguarded.
The Church calls to mind that, early in his human life, Jesus, Mary and Joseph were forced by political circumstances to migrate to Egypt, where His parents lived and worked as immigrants and strangers in a foreign land.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus reminds his followers that “I was a stranger and you welcomed me … As you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:35, 40) which are words that speak clearly to today’s circumstances according to Archbishop José Gómez, the archbishop of San Antonio, who often speaks for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on immigration issues.
Christ is present in the migrant worker and the undocumented immigrant and what we do to them we do to Christ, he said. “This sense has been totally lost in the rhetoric of the immigration debates. To listen to talk radio or the cable news, and even to some of our politicians, it’s as if the immigrant isn’t even a person. Instead he’s only a thief or a terrorist or a simple work-animal,” Archbishop Gómez said. “We need to promote solutions to this tragedy that reflect the values of Jesus Christ and the Gospel.”
Said Anna Vega, the director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Hispanic Ministry, “Because of the nature of our office, we hear many horror stories of anti-immigrant feelings that border on hatred. This is not just from one particular group, but across the spectrum, and it includes many persons who call themselves ‘Christians’ but forget that we are all God’s children.
“These undocumented [immigrants] are our brothers and sisters, created in the image and likeness of God,” Vega said. “They are not sub-human, but rather, just like us — families looking to live in decent neighborhoods, have their children go to good schools, going to worship and earn a decent wage to be able to give their families the same things that we want for ours.”
Under current immigrations laws, family members have a waiting period of up to 13 years before they can be reunited with family members who are legally in the United States. Also, an undocumented mother or father can be detained and deported without any notice to his or her family.
“We learn from Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body that the family is a cornerstone — a key building block of our society, but our present laws are keeping that cornerstone, that building block, from functioning properly,” said Msgr. Hugh Shields, the archdiocesan Vicar for Hispanic Ministry.
With the separation of family members there is a greater risk to fall into social pitfalls such as drug and alcohol abuse, he said.
Vega also added that the unity of the family is sacred and must be kept intact: “The current immigration laws must take great care to not separate the family, or we will risk increasing the rate of juvenile delinquency, children not in schools, living in poverty and much more,” she said.
At the same time, trying to send back between 10 to 12 million undocumented workers is an unrealistic solution to the immigration problem and would harm the economy, Archbishop Gómez said. “Although federal immigration reform was killed in Congress last year after a bitter debate, more than 240 new laws were passed in 46 of our 50 states,” he said. “Many of these new laws are harsh and punitive. And already they’re creating injustices and economic hardships throughout the country. You can open the pages of The Wall Street Journal almost every day and find evidence that our nation’s economy can’t prosper, or even operate efficiently, without a large immigrant workforce.”
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith may be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.