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More on
myths confusing the immigration challenge
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
In increasing
numbers, consensus is building that the immigration system here in the
United States is broken. The large number of undocumented immigrants in
our country is evidence that the current system is grossly inadequate.
It fails to provide a timely or workable avenue for people to cross our
borders with documentation, people who are seeking to be reunited with
family members as well as those needed to fill labor-force needs. Myths
rather than facts are being used to distract many from the realities
that must be faced if the immigration system is to be fixed.
In an effort
to name those myths, the Indiana Catholic Conference has provided
pastors with facts to counterpoint the more common sound bites. Pastors
have been asked to include this material in their parish bulletins.
Diocesan newspapers have been offering slightly expanded versions of the
same material.
On May 25, I
used this column to address two of the common myths about immigration:
that immigrants take jobs and opportunities away from Americans and that
immigrants don’t pay taxes. The Catholic Moment issue of May 11
addressed a third myth: Immigrants come here to take welfare.
People
migrate to the United States to be reunited with family members or
because they are desperate to find quality of life in a time of rampant
poverty and political unrest. The desperation is reflected in the
numbers of those who die in their efforts to cross the American border
and in the exorbitant fees they are forced to pay to those who promise
them a means to reach the United States. Except for children, most
immigrants are employed once they enter the United States. Because most
work, albeit many at lower-paying jobs, the ratio between immigrant use
of public benefits to the amount of taxes paid is favorable. Some
estimate that immigrant taxes total $20 billion to $30 billion more than
the amount of government services they use.
The reason
for this is that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for the vast
majority of state and federal benefits.
Even legal
permanent resident immigrants are ineligible for most government
programs. They are prohibited from receiving most cash assistance during
their first three years in the country and are subject to deportation if
they become a public charge within five years of entry.
The few
public benefits that undocumented immigrants may receive include
emergency Medicaid, nutritional assistance to women, infants and
children, and school lunches and breakfasts. Eligibility for these few
programs and services is designed to provide emergency medical care, to
reduce the risk that innocent children will be punished or hurt as a
result of their parents’ immigration status, and to serve the fiscal and
long-term interest of all Americans. Children born to undocumented
people in this country are, by the fact of their birth here, citizens of
the United States.
Immigrants,
documented as well as undocumented, do not come to the United States to
abuse welfare. They come because they are desperate to improve their
standard of living. They come to find work. Almost universally, they
have a reputation for being hard-working people. According to the Census
Bureau, immigrant labor force participation is consistently higher than
native-born, and immigrant workers make up a larger share of the U.S.
labor force (12.4 percent) than they do of the U.S. population (11.5
percent).
Yet another
myth: Catholic bishops (the Catholic Church) support illegal
immigration.
The Catholic
Church and the bishops of the United States do not condone unlawful
entry or circumventions of our nation’s immigration laws. Rather, we
believe that reforms are necessary for the immigration system to respond
to the realities of separated families and labor demands that compel
people to migrate to the United States. The Church respects the right of
nations to control their borders and to enact laws in the best interest
of their citizens. But, the Church also teaches that some rights are
inalienable. There are natural rights which extend beyond all national
boundaries. Each person is created in the image of God. Each person has
a right to live with dignity. The Church has an obligation to counter
the misinformation about immigration and urge a fix to a system that is
a failure. Moral principles are involved.
One such
principle is that all people should have their basic needs met in their
homeland. When they are not met, they have the right to seek basic needs
abroad. When they do so, the dignity of the human person must be
respected and priority must be given to family reunification. The
Catholic Church responds to the plight of immigrants not because they
have violated a law, but because of its basic belief and teaching on the
dignity of every human being. While an action or a person’s immigration
status can be illegal, a person can never be illegal.
The Catholic
Church in the United States is especially sensitive to the plight of
immigrants because we are an immigrant Church, made up of people from
all parts of the earth. I assume that my immigrant ancestors eventually
sought citizenship. Perhaps they never did. What I know is that they
came because conditions in the old country had become intolerable.
Unless judged a health threat, criminals, mentally ill, anarchists or
employed in vice industries, they were not turned away at the border. It
took time, but they were integrated into the American way of life, even
as they were looked upon with great suspicion because they were foreign
and Catholic. They worked hard. Money was sent back to the “old country”
for those who remained behind. Time was needed for them to become
comfortable with English and American culture, but their presence made
the United States a better place, even though at the time there were
many who would have closed the borders to my family.
The Church
has a responsibility to assist the newcomer. The way in which a person
enters the United States is a separate issue from our response to that
individual once he or she is here. In Scripture, God calls upon his
people to care for the alien. “So, you, too, must befriend the alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt” (Deut.
10:17-19). And in chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus identifies
with the marginalized and commands us to respond when he said, “I was a
stranger and you welcomed me.”
The challenge
is to find realistic ways for peoples to secure documentation to cross
our borders and to treat them with the dignity to which they have an
inalienable right once they are here.
When the
myths are stripped away, our own self interests (if not moral principle)
should urge us to do so. |
