C
cyberjacques
Guest
This is a question I have been struggling with since I started considering becoming Catholic, and now that I finally have the question still bothers me. It has been categorized as one of the greatest moral challenges of our age, and I agree. I fear this will be a long post, so please bear with me.
How do some Catholics (especially clergy) justify facilitating illegal immigration? The reason I’ve been given several times is that as Christians it is our duty to help those in the most desperate of situations. This is very true, but it is also terribly short-sighted. There are two angles to this problem. First, what effect is illegal immigration having on this country, and second, is there such a thing as too much almsgiving?
This country is having a rough time trying to absorb such a massive influx of population. Roads, schools, hospitals, none of them can keep up. Schools and hospitals have been hit the hardest, with classroom sizes surging above 30 students per teacher, and more and more schools are giving in to demands for more and more special programs for foreign-speaking students, whose parents are often resistant to their children learning English, while every year more and more hospitals with emergency rooms (which many illegals use as primary care, without paying) are forced to close due to lack of funds. The cost of health care has skyrocketed in an effort to mitigate some of the damage, but all that does is hurt the people in lower income brackets.
Government programs, on federal, state, and local levels, are becoming more easily accessible to illegal immigrants, which attracts even more. Millions of tax dollars are spent each year on programs specifically for illegals, not accessible to citizens, even destitute ones. Sanctuary cities spend vast amounts of taxes on absurd concessions that they would never offer to impoverished citizens, while refusing to turn violent criminals over to be deported. And at the same time, thousands of illegals are living in a state of near-slavery, being paid next to nothing while being threatened with exposure or worse should they complain or try to escape from their “employers”.
And all the while, it’s the citizens and legal immigrants who are footing the bill. The situation now really boils down to mandatory charity, which is not charity at all. Involuntary almsgiving is destructive for three reasons. First, it ceases to be charity and becomes theft. Second, those asked to pay, whether they can really afford it or not, become resentful of those receiving the aid. And third, with a steady and assured source of aid, those receiving it develop a sense of entitlement, becoming dependent on the aid and rarely ever seeking better.
But all of this pales in comparison to the fact that the resources that are desperately needed by our own impoverished citizens are instead being used by another nation’s impoverished citizens. This is not to say that our people are more precious than their people, but taking the food out of one person’s mouth to give it to another is wrong. If a person chooses to give out of their own poverty it is a beautiful thing. But giving out of another’s poverty is evil. For instance, the poor widow in the Bible who gave her last two coins did a righteous thing. But say for a moment that she had children to feed, and still gave her last two coins. She would no longer be giving out of just her poverty, but also out of the poverty of those in her charge, and would be responsible for their suffering. And even worse if she stole from another just to give it away. Because when a government takes the taxes entrusted to them by its citizens and uses it in such a way, it is theft, pure and simple. I don’t think that any Christian would disagree that a person’s primary responsibility is to their family. On a national level, that means our own citizens.
This is the point where charity can become destructive. Our nation is hurting its own citizens in an attempt to aid an overwhelming number of people. I don’t blame the illegal immigrants at all. If I were in their place, trying to provide for my family in such an impossible situation, I would do the exact same thing they have, whatever it took to care for my family. But the current situation has progressed far beyond that, and has become something that isn’t good for anyone. The current system has allowed, and even encouraged illegal immigrants to break laws, keep themselves segregated, not learn English, and perpetuate their own poverty and second-class status for generations, while at the same time eroding the infrastructure that the rest of the nation depends on and generating more than a little animosity among citizens that feel, and rightly so, that their own government is giving preferential treatment to foreign nationals.
In summary, the reason I believe that Catholics shouldn’t support illegal immigration is that it is no longer charity. It is enabling a system that severely undermines one population only to turn another into a perpetual under-class, giving nations such as Mexico no reason to change but plenty of reasons to maintain the status quo of abusing their own people. Legal immigration is a good thing, it’s what this country was founded on. But the uncontrolled flood is not something I can, in good conscience, support. Am I wrong? Is there a reason why I, as a devout Catholic, should support aiding or even hiding illegal immigrants?
How do some Catholics (especially clergy) justify facilitating illegal immigration? The reason I’ve been given several times is that as Christians it is our duty to help those in the most desperate of situations. This is very true, but it is also terribly short-sighted. There are two angles to this problem. First, what effect is illegal immigration having on this country, and second, is there such a thing as too much almsgiving?
This country is having a rough time trying to absorb such a massive influx of population. Roads, schools, hospitals, none of them can keep up. Schools and hospitals have been hit the hardest, with classroom sizes surging above 30 students per teacher, and more and more schools are giving in to demands for more and more special programs for foreign-speaking students, whose parents are often resistant to their children learning English, while every year more and more hospitals with emergency rooms (which many illegals use as primary care, without paying) are forced to close due to lack of funds. The cost of health care has skyrocketed in an effort to mitigate some of the damage, but all that does is hurt the people in lower income brackets.
Government programs, on federal, state, and local levels, are becoming more easily accessible to illegal immigrants, which attracts even more. Millions of tax dollars are spent each year on programs specifically for illegals, not accessible to citizens, even destitute ones. Sanctuary cities spend vast amounts of taxes on absurd concessions that they would never offer to impoverished citizens, while refusing to turn violent criminals over to be deported. And at the same time, thousands of illegals are living in a state of near-slavery, being paid next to nothing while being threatened with exposure or worse should they complain or try to escape from their “employers”.
And all the while, it’s the citizens and legal immigrants who are footing the bill. The situation now really boils down to mandatory charity, which is not charity at all. Involuntary almsgiving is destructive for three reasons. First, it ceases to be charity and becomes theft. Second, those asked to pay, whether they can really afford it or not, become resentful of those receiving the aid. And third, with a steady and assured source of aid, those receiving it develop a sense of entitlement, becoming dependent on the aid and rarely ever seeking better.
But all of this pales in comparison to the fact that the resources that are desperately needed by our own impoverished citizens are instead being used by another nation’s impoverished citizens. This is not to say that our people are more precious than their people, but taking the food out of one person’s mouth to give it to another is wrong. If a person chooses to give out of their own poverty it is a beautiful thing. But giving out of another’s poverty is evil. For instance, the poor widow in the Bible who gave her last two coins did a righteous thing. But say for a moment that she had children to feed, and still gave her last two coins. She would no longer be giving out of just her poverty, but also out of the poverty of those in her charge, and would be responsible for their suffering. And even worse if she stole from another just to give it away. Because when a government takes the taxes entrusted to them by its citizens and uses it in such a way, it is theft, pure and simple. I don’t think that any Christian would disagree that a person’s primary responsibility is to their family. On a national level, that means our own citizens.
This is the point where charity can become destructive. Our nation is hurting its own citizens in an attempt to aid an overwhelming number of people. I don’t blame the illegal immigrants at all. If I were in their place, trying to provide for my family in such an impossible situation, I would do the exact same thing they have, whatever it took to care for my family. But the current situation has progressed far beyond that, and has become something that isn’t good for anyone. The current system has allowed, and even encouraged illegal immigrants to break laws, keep themselves segregated, not learn English, and perpetuate their own poverty and second-class status for generations, while at the same time eroding the infrastructure that the rest of the nation depends on and generating more than a little animosity among citizens that feel, and rightly so, that their own government is giving preferential treatment to foreign nationals.
In summary, the reason I believe that Catholics shouldn’t support illegal immigration is that it is no longer charity. It is enabling a system that severely undermines one population only to turn another into a perpetual under-class, giving nations such as Mexico no reason to change but plenty of reasons to maintain the status quo of abusing their own people. Legal immigration is a good thing, it’s what this country was founded on. But the uncontrolled flood is not something I can, in good conscience, support. Am I wrong? Is there a reason why I, as a devout Catholic, should support aiding or even hiding illegal immigrants?