Editorial

We must respect human rights and dignity as part of immigration reform

The Catholic Church in the United States has actively advocated for immigration reform since the 1970s. During this time, the American bishops have worked closely with their brother bishops in Mexico and with Church leaders in other regions of the world to find practical ways to implement Catholic social teaching regarding the migration of peoples.

The Church’s position could not be clearer. Christ has commanded us to “welcome the stranger among us” and to treat every human being with dignity and respect. As Pope Leo XIV said recently in his message for the 111th World Day of Migrants and Refugees:

“Many migrants, refugees and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope. Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development.”

This year, rather than being celebrated on Sept. 24 as usual, the World Day of Migrants and Refugees will coincide with the Jubilee of Migrants and of Missions, which takes place on Oct. 4-5.

As migration has become a contentious issue here in the United States, the Catholic Church has been actively involved in education efforts and the crafting of political solutions to the current broken system. The bishops of the United States have proposed a comprehensive set of recommendations for changing laws and policies to bring about a more humane and just immigration system in the United States. Efforts to preserve family unity and protect human dignity remain at the center of the Church’s reform efforts.

Sadly, during the past four decades, our Church’s best efforts to address the problems associated with immigration reform have been frustrated as political leaders in Congress and in the White House from both major parties have failed to deliver and/or enforce laws that would provide effective solutions to growing problems with immigration.

Especially since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, debates about immigration have focused almost exclusively on enforcement. The Catholic Church acknowledges the right of sovereign nations to control their borders and to regulate legal immigration, but for several decades now, leaders in the Catholic Church have urged our legislators to pass additional immigration legislation that would reaffirm the centrality of family unity in the immigration system and exemplify respect for the innate value of the human person. Unfortunately, positive reform efforts have fallen victim to a growing partisan divide that has continually stymied passage of any workable, bipartisan solution.

Enforcement of existing laws has been erratic and ineffective at best—ranging from the extremes of “open borders” to threats of mass deportation of undocumented people. In the process, decent hardworking immigrants and their families are all too often denied basic human rights and treated as if they were all criminals, drug dealers, or worse.

In order to address these issues, the Catholic Church’s advocacy efforts extend far beyond the issue of enforcement, as important as this is. The Church continues to emphasize many themes that are of longstanding importance to comprehensive immigration reform:

• Earned legalization: An earned legalization program would allow foreign nationals of good moral character who are living in the United States to apply to adjust their status to obtain lawful permanent residence.
• Future worker program: A worker program to permit foreign-born workers to enter the country safely and legally would help reduce illegal immigration and the loss of life in the American desert.
• Family-based immigration reform: Changes in family-based immigration should be made to increase the number of family visas available and reduce family reunification waiting times.
• Restoration of due process rights: Due process rights taken away by previous reforms should be restored. For example, the three and 10-year bars to re-entry should be eliminated.
• Addressing root causes: The antidote to the problem of illegal immigration is sustainable economic development in countries that send immigrants. In an ideal world, migration should be driven by choice, not necessity.
• Recalibrate enforcement at the border: The U.S. Catholic bishops are deeply concerned about indiscriminate enforcement that separates family members and which uses migrant detention as a deterrence strategy. Any enforcement measures must be targeted, proportional and humane.

The bishops believe that by increasing lawful means for migrants to enter, live and work in the United States, law enforcement will be better able to focus on those migrants who actually do threaten public safety.

True immigration reform means respecting human rights and dignity. It means asking everyone concerned to set aside their disagreements long enough to listen to one another, to discern practical solutions, and to work together to resolve differences and implement programs that serve the best interests of individuals, families and our nation as a whole.

—Daniel Conway