Borders, alienation and church

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony at the beginning of the Lenten season called on priests to defy proposed U.S. laws that would require churches to check for immigration status. How would you counsel members of your religious organization to deal with such proposed laws?

Immigrants are simply people who have come to the United States hoping to share in the American dream ? to make a better life for their families by hard work. They are not criminals. As we well know, most of them come here because they can readily find work at jobs that our society wants them to do. Anyone who has hired a Mexican or Mexican-American worker because they got a good deal or could find no one else to do a job should be honest about this issue and then consider what is fair and decent treatment of our neighbors. To be in the U.S. without proper documentation is a civil offense calling for deportation. The proposed new law, passed by the House but awaiting action by the Senate, would make it a criminal offense to be in the country without documentation. Even worse, it would make the humanitarian assistance given by churches, ministers, doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers to undocumented workers a criminal offense.

Harsh penalties will not stop people from leaving their homelands to escape miserable conditions. As long as rich nations profit from global economic power and poor nations get poorer, the motivation to migrate will exist. As long as there are jobs to be had, people will come for them. Despite fears that undocumented immigrants drain our social services, the truth is that the majority of undocumented immigrants are making economic contributions to our society. But if they do sometimes need social services, we should not try to stop community and church organizations from giving food, shelter and medical care by making humanitarian assistance a criminal offense.

Fear of terrorism should not be used to justify criminalizing people, building fences and walls or sending the National Guard to the border. Any realistic solution must take into account three factors: That people have the need and right to migrate; that nations have a right to regulate their borders and control migration; and that the dignity of the human person must be upheld through just and merciful policies. We need to reform our immigration procedures by using guest-worker programs, by legalizing undocumented workers and by developing a more realistic and humane immigration policy.