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**Church Position on Migration Policy
The Catholic Church in the United States does not support open borders, illegal immigration, or an “amnesty” that would grant legal status to all unauthorized immigrants. It believes nations have a legitimate responsibility to promote the common good by denying admission to certain migrants and by regulating the flow of all those who are seeking to enter.
However, the church sees the current US immigration system — while generous in many respects — as badly in need of reform. It has been particularly offended by hundreds of deaths along the US-Mexico border; the growth of human smuggling rings; the disconnect between US labor needs, trade policies, and immigration admission levels; and decades-long delays in some family reunification categories.
The church does not believe that criminal prosecution and deportation of unauthorized immigrants offer a viable, much less a humane, approach to the problem. As the church is quick to highlight, many unauthorized immigrants live in “mixed-status” families and represent five percent of the US workforce.
Doing nothing, the church believes, would facilitate the growth of a population of second-class noncitizens with limited rights, few prospects, or security.
As the US bishops stated in 1986, the year the US Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), “It is against the common good and unacceptable to have a double society, one visible with rights and one invisible without rights — a voiceless underground of undocumented persons.” IRCA made it illegal for employers to hire unauthorized immigrants, increased enforcement, and granted amnesty to unauthorized immigrants who met certain criteria. After IRCA passed, the US bishops mobilized the country’s largest network of “qualified designated entities” — voluntary and community organizations that had permission from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to help unauthorized immigrants fill out adjustment-of-status applications.
To fix the current system, US bishops support a comprehensive approach. They believe “enforcement only” will exacerbate the current crisis. As evidence, they cite an increase in border control funding between 1993 and 2006 (from $361 million to $1.8 billion) that has been accompanied by roughly a tripling of the country’s unauthorized population, from 3.9 to 12 million people.
Looking Ahead
As a result of its pro-immigrant stand on immigration reform, the church has been accused of betraying the United States, violating its tax-exempt status, and prospecting for new (immigrant) members. Above all, it has been criticized for inserting itself in a political issue on which some say it has little expertise and can make no particular contribution.
Yet many Catholics think the church’s reverence for immigrants as human beings uniquely qualifies it to help the nation understand “what is just” for them. It believes a just immigration system would allow immigrants to realize their basic aspirations and, in doing so, would serve the good of all Americans.
The full membership of newcomers will not happen overnight, and it will not be accomplished solely by immigration reform legislation. Ultimately, the integration process requires not just political, social, and economic opportunity, but a sense of shared community and values. The church — through its JFI campaign and many ministries — plans to devote itself to this long-term goal, well after immigration reform legislation passes. **
migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=395
The Church does not support illegal immigration or amnesty but sometype of reform. I think alot of fellow Catholics are confused and scandalized perhaps confusing the two. The Church supports reform but not the conitinued rolling in of illegal immigrants… big difference.
The Catholic Church in the United States does not support open borders, illegal immigration, or an “amnesty” that would grant legal status to all unauthorized immigrants. It believes nations have a legitimate responsibility to promote the common good by denying admission to certain migrants and by regulating the flow of all those who are seeking to enter.
However, the church sees the current US immigration system — while generous in many respects — as badly in need of reform. It has been particularly offended by hundreds of deaths along the US-Mexico border; the growth of human smuggling rings; the disconnect between US labor needs, trade policies, and immigration admission levels; and decades-long delays in some family reunification categories.
The church does not believe that criminal prosecution and deportation of unauthorized immigrants offer a viable, much less a humane, approach to the problem. As the church is quick to highlight, many unauthorized immigrants live in “mixed-status” families and represent five percent of the US workforce.
Doing nothing, the church believes, would facilitate the growth of a population of second-class noncitizens with limited rights, few prospects, or security.
As the US bishops stated in 1986, the year the US Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), “It is against the common good and unacceptable to have a double society, one visible with rights and one invisible without rights — a voiceless underground of undocumented persons.” IRCA made it illegal for employers to hire unauthorized immigrants, increased enforcement, and granted amnesty to unauthorized immigrants who met certain criteria. After IRCA passed, the US bishops mobilized the country’s largest network of “qualified designated entities” — voluntary and community organizations that had permission from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to help unauthorized immigrants fill out adjustment-of-status applications.
To fix the current system, US bishops support a comprehensive approach. They believe “enforcement only” will exacerbate the current crisis. As evidence, they cite an increase in border control funding between 1993 and 2006 (from $361 million to $1.8 billion) that has been accompanied by roughly a tripling of the country’s unauthorized population, from 3.9 to 12 million people.
Looking Ahead
As a result of its pro-immigrant stand on immigration reform, the church has been accused of betraying the United States, violating its tax-exempt status, and prospecting for new (immigrant) members. Above all, it has been criticized for inserting itself in a political issue on which some say it has little expertise and can make no particular contribution.
Yet many Catholics think the church’s reverence for immigrants as human beings uniquely qualifies it to help the nation understand “what is just” for them. It believes a just immigration system would allow immigrants to realize their basic aspirations and, in doing so, would serve the good of all Americans.
The full membership of newcomers will not happen overnight, and it will not be accomplished solely by immigration reform legislation. Ultimately, the integration process requires not just political, social, and economic opportunity, but a sense of shared community and values. The church — through its JFI campaign and many ministries — plans to devote itself to this long-term goal, well after immigration reform legislation passes. **
migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=395
The Church does not support illegal immigration or amnesty but sometype of reform. I think alot of fellow Catholics are confused and scandalized perhaps confusing the two. The Church supports reform but not the conitinued rolling in of illegal immigrants… big difference.