Sec. 1: Mexican Catholics suffered extreme persecution in the early 20th century
Comment: This is an appalling record of suffering and martyrdom, little-known to most Americans. It motivated the immigration of many Mexicans to the United States in the first third of the 20th century. It would have been unreasonable to delay or impede these refugees’ flight to safety in the face of this emergency. And in fact, their way was not barred: many hundreds of thousands settled in the US in the 1920’s and ‘30’s; their descendants were, for the most part, born here; and all of them are U.S. citizens. They are not among today’s “illegals,” and few of us, if any, as Catholics or as Americans, begrudge their presence here.
Moreover, the 20th century saw many government crimes against persons, leading to many millions of “emergency refugees” seeking safety, with source countries other than Mexico and host countries other than the US. A globe tracing the lines of these war-and-persecution related displacements of populations would look like a yarn ball completely covered by the criss-crossing strands of suffering.
Is it a reasonable inference, then, that all countries of the world should suspend enforcement of all their borders and welcome all comers?
Or should we rather conclude that the priority for immigration should be much more carefully and selectively given to those who are fleeting from murder, from Herod?
I would say the latter.
Sec. 2: Poverty in Mexico, and demand for low-wage laborers in the U.S., spurred recent Mexico-to-U.S. migration. Remittances from family members in the U.S. have provided much aid to those still in Mexico.
Comment: Also meriting some mention could be these perspectives:
U.S. unemployment rate for blacks projected to hit 25-year high
(Washington Post, Jan 15, 2010)
“National black unemployment rate soars to 17.2 percent, rates in five states exceeding 20 percent… the unemployment gap between men and women has reached a record high -- with men far outpacing women in joblessness.”
The dead end kids
(The New York Post, By RICHARD WILNER)
“The number of young Americans without a job has exploded to 53.4 percent — a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. — meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and their transition into productive members of society put on hold for an extended period of time…"
The costs of the influx of foreign labor are largely borne by young black males, many of whom, reduced to permanent joblessness and degrading dependency, cannot even imagine attaining the status of adult working men supporting wives and families.
Sec. 3: God’s Priorities
“God especially hears the cry of the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner (Exodus 20:20-22) and reminds us to be particularly mindful of their needs.”
This is an exceedingly good point, and yet it may not yield the policy recommendations that many may suppose. Our concern for the widow and orphan may also strongly argue against facilitating the immigration of Mexican and Central American men into the U.S., since it so often breaks up families “back home,” leaving the wife in Mexico a “widow” and the children in Mexico “orphans,” ---yes, with the support of a remittance check, but that’s often a temporary consolation, since so many Mexican men eventually find new partners and form new families in the U.S., leaving their Mexican families truly abandoned.
Labor statistics also show that Hispanic Americans who were born here or who immigrated legally, are, like black people, disproportionately beaten down by illegal immigration. They, too, suffer, catastrophically high unemployment and low wages, undercut year after year by incoming waves of illegals who under-bid them for the lowest-paying jobs in America.
I bow my head to your Exodus quote on the "widows, orphans and foreigners," and give you an Isaiah 58:7
“This, rather, is the fast that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke …
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.”
The part about "sharing your bread and clothing the naked" has to do with our religous duty as the People of God to respond to the person we see in need "on the road" --- our response as individual believers and as the Church, impelled by grace and motivated by the Love of God.
It does not imply access to the resources of the Governor of Roman Judea or entitlement to benefits from the U.S. Treasury, whose funding is compulsory via taxation. Such entitlements have little to do with grace or love, and everything to do with rewarding people who have disrespected our laws and violated our boundaries with the expectation of being able to game the system.
And this brings us to one more issue from a Catholic point of view: the scandal of lawlessness.
Most people from Mexico and Central America who enter this country illegally, do so, even from the outset, by becoming enmeshed in a web of criminal conspiracy, either as cooperators or as victims, and usually both.
They pay international criminal traffickers to guide them across into the U.S. On the way, since they’ve put themselves into the hands of truly vicious men, they’re often sexually exploited or raped or robbed or beaten. Perhaps they arrive in debt to the coyote, who then makes them an offer they can’t refuse: you can become a “mule” and transport drugs, weapons and other contraband; or you can be a prostitute and work the customers until your debt is paid. Or you could end up in a ditch with a bullet in your head. Your choice, amigo.
Then the illegals turn to the professional crooks, often acting in concert with systematically corrupted U.S. officials, to get fraudulent papers, because none of them are truly “undocumented” for long. They engage in the ”necessary” forgery, fraud, and identity theft. "Honest and young and just looking for a job" --- as some, or many, may have been in the beginning --- they are drawn deeper and deeper into moral disintegration.
From the point of view of the one essential thing--- the person’s soul --- what is the real cost? Multiply lying and fraud: initially under duress, at first with shame, then for advantage, then habitually, then cynically, then callously, then --- you have a subculture corrupted from top to bottom, from the Catholic Bishops of Mexico to the Democratic and Republican National Committees in Washington, DC, down to Chico from Michoacan with a little bag of cocaine sewn into his backpack, and the youngest whore on the streets of Phoenix.
Multiply this by a million. Call it a “Structure of Injustice.” Please. Call it “Institutionalized Violence.” But don’t call it “America Welcomes the Immigrant and the Stranger” because this is not America’s heritage as a Nation under Law and this is not God’s commandment.
Didn’t we learn, when we were young, that this is the way of sin?
And didn’t we learn that there are deadly ways in which we participate in the sins of others? We contribute to the death of souls
It makes me sick that there are Catholic bishops of the United States, already reeling under the cumulative impact of not enforcing the laws against sexually predatory clerics (yes, I know it’s complicated, but there it is in one sentence) who are now bringing more shame and pain upon us by again justifying the non-enforcement of law against this huge engine of injustice known as Illegal Immigration.
Cardinal Mahony says that the people who want to enforce the law in Arizona are comparable to “Nazis” and “Communists.” And here’s Archbishop Jose Gomez’ line: he says that people who favor lawful borders, and turning back felons, forgers and frauds, are akin to “Julian the Apostate.” I myself believe we must require honest lawful conduct by people who come to our country: so, I suppose, that makes me pretty damned bad.
http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7970&Itemid=101&ed=4
(The linked article is by John Zmirak, re Archishop Gomez’ remarks. I urge you to read this.)
And I offer you this from Proverbs 28:9
Mr. Simoneau, let me be fair: I’m not under the impression that you endorsed Mahony’s and Gomez’ profoundly wrong-headed point of view. You did not call me a Nazi or an Apostate. Nor did you say that this Open Borders perspective --- this enabling of human trafficking, this offering of incentives for those who game the system, this legalizing of lawbreakers --- is the Way of the Saints.
With sincere respect for you --- and trusting you to generously see past my own flaws and faults of thought and expression --- I would truly value your response to this.
[signed]
another bump
Marking
Brilliant post.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on my column. I truly appreciate it and certainly respect your comments. I’m not sure that we are really all that far apart on our thinking about immigration.
The documents that have been of help to me in forming my conscience on this subject are Exsul Familia Nazarethana by Pope Pius XII (1 Aug 1952) and the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People instruction, Erg migrantes caritas Christi (2004).
First of all, I believe, as Pope Pius XII stated, that a country has the right to control its borders, but it also mustn’t exaggerate its sovereignty. There are the “push factors” which I attempted to highlight, but there is also the mechanism for controlling the flow into the country which long ago failed to keep up with the in-country (US) demands for seasonal workers and laborers and which remains the major attraction for coming into the US. That system desperately needs to be fixed.
It is not the Church’s job to tell politicians how to come about with those fixes, but it is the Church’s responsibility – and that means every Catholic’s responsibility – to remind our legislators that they are dealing with human beings whose dignity must always be at the heart of their deliberations. The call to comprehensive immigration reform is above all a dignity issue.
But until a legal and efficient process is developed and implemented, illegal entry into the US will remain the easiest path (and far from the safest) for getting into the US. The system has to be fixed so illegal entry is no longer attractive. This will be the way that those who make money guiding people across the border will be put out of business. Given a choice of coming into the country legally or illegally, who wouldn’t chose to do so legally. But there exists only 5000 worker visas each year for a demand that is a hundred times greater than that. People are not going to want to wait years to get a worker visa for jobs that exist now.
Fix the system and make it so that it can efficiently provide visas for the in-country demands and I think you’ll find the vast majority of those seeking entry into the US will want to do so through a mechanism for a proper legal entry. Until then, the illegalities will only continue and worsen.
As I was writing the above, a verse from I Chronicles 22:1-2 came to mind. King David, on in years, began collecting all the materials that would be needed by his son for building the Temple. The verses state: “David then ordered that all the aliens who lived in the land of Israel be brought together, and he appointed them stonecutters to hew out stone blocks for building the house of God.”
I believe a nation can do one of two things with its alien residents – they can either treat them harshly as the Egyptians did the Israelites or do as David did and make them a part of building up the kingdom of God in our country.
Again, I think we honestly differ very little on this issue. Because it is so difficult of an issue, I have tried to understand it from the perspective of those who doubtless want to make this journey but feel they have little other choice if their families are to survive. I look forward to our continued dialogue.
Paul Simoneau
Director of Peace and Justice
Diocese of Knoxville
I would truly like to think we are not “really all that far apart on our thinking about immigration. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take this discussion further.
Let’s examine your assertion that “[the] mechanism for controlling the flow into the country long ago failed to keep up with US demands for seasonal workers and laborers.” You’re saying that we need to take in a lot more legal immigrants, because America does not have enough unemployable people to take seasonal agricultural jobs.
On the contrary, this year Stanislaus County, CA, in the middle of California’s agricultural heartland, saw its unemployment rate hit a record 18.9%
http://www.modbee.com/2010/03/10/1083029/stanislaus-unemployment-at-189.html
Same thing in Kern Co, over 18%
http://www.turnto23.com/news/23178035/detail.html
Over 20% in five other California counties
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/11/business/la-fi-cal-jobs11-2010mar11
I realize this is just a California snapshot, Spring 2010, not harvest time, but I can easily get you figures from all over the USA, seasonally adjusted. California was one of five, along with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that recently reached their highest unemployment rates since the government began keeping track in 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In all of these places, the unemployment rate for the young white, black and Latino male subset is MUCH HIGHER. Just take 30 seconds to run your eyes over these figures nationwide: among young males, over 50% unemployment.
http://tinyurl.com/youth-unemployment-us
Surely you see that the very sector who have the bodily capacity to do physical labor, are the ones who are suffering the most disastrous unemployment--- even as farm employers, landscapers, and construction contractors say they can’t operate without Mexicans?
That 50% figure for youth unemployment represents not just an economic need, but a terrible psychological --- call it a wasting disease. Young Americans, black, white, and Latino (native-born and legitimate legal immigrants) become demoralized, are reduced to a state of degrading dependency, lose a big chunk of their human dignity when they, first, cannot find entry-level jobs; second, cannot get apprenticeships; third, are not even expected to work, i.e. to aspire to the status and dignity of full adults.
At present there are 16 million unemployed --- and that’s understated, since it does NOT include those who are not seeking unemployment benefits: the young who have never had a job, laid-off workers who have given up looking for a job, and those who are employed part-time when they want and need full-time.
Forty percent have been out of work for more than 6 months. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0108/Number-of-long-term-unemployed-hits-highest-rate-since-1948
To paraphrase and rework what you said. “The call to oppose the flood of low-wage immigration is above all a dignity issue.”
Mexico does not have to be, and in important ways, IS NOT, a poor country. Mexico has the 12th highest GDP in the world, outranking Spain and Canada, and FAR outranking any other country in Central America or the Caribbean coast. Three times higher than Colombia. Five times higher than Venezuela. Almost 15 times higher than Ecuador.
http://tinyurl.com/world-purchasing-power-parity
By the way, a lot of Central American people would love to work in rich Mexico. But under Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony. The General Law on Population says,
* “A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.” (Article 123)
* Foreigners with legal immigration problems may be deported from Mexico instead of being imprisoned. (Article 125)
Mexicans who help illegal aliens enter the country are themselves considered criminals under the law:
* A Mexican who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject to up to five years in prison. (Article 127)
* Shipping and airline companies that bring undocumented foreigners into Mexico will be fined. (Article 132)
All that is backed up by Mexican law enforcement officers at every level: every city cop, every policeman in all 31 states, is empowered to enforce this law, and by God they do.
At the same time, Mexico openly colludes in shipping people into the USA illegally, and furiously protests our attempts to enforce our own legitimate laws.
I honestly think we should call Mexico’s bluff on its unwarranted interference in U.S. immigration policy. Let’s propose, just to make a point, that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) member nations standardize their immigration laws by using Mexico’s own law as a model.
Perhaps a case can be made for increasing the number of legal worker visas in certain skilled areas. But I would want to make it subject to some sort of trigger mechanism.
Just off the top of my head, say that when young US male unemployment is at 50%, the number of temporary work visas for the agricultural, landscaping, food processing, meat packing and related sectors will be zero. At 25% young US male unemployment, the corresponding work visas will be 5,000. At 10% young US male unemployment, 10,000 visas. At 5%, 20,000 visas.
You understand these are just top-of-my-head figures. But I’m getting the concept across.
I believe, and would argue strongly, that it is immoral to allow immigration to take entry-level, seasonal, low-wage, unskilled or semi-skilled jobs when white, black, and Latino men already legally in the US are rotting away for lack of employment.
There is not one job in the USA that will lack US workers, if the wages are decent.
Paul, did you know I worked for the United Farm Workers 40 years ago? Worked my tail off for them, for social justice, for the poor, for those looking for a better future.
The Union failed. There were more farmworkers under a Union contract in 1970 than there are today. Do you know why it failed? There are about 3 or 4 reasons I could cite, but the absolute biggie was: wave after wave of foreign laborers who destroyed wages, destroyed working conditions, destroyed any possibility of dignified successful Union farm labor in California or anywhere else in the USA.
Another paraphrase, reworking what you said in a different way: God bless the Mexicans: make them a part of building up the kingdom of God in their country: in Mexico.
Good to talk with you, Paul. I’m glad we respect each other enough to argue hard.
Faithfully,
[Mrs. Don-o]
We here in Little Rock are dealing with an influx of Illegals due to The Mexican Consolute and our Bishop who is PRO Illegals. Here is his First news letter from 2008.
Taylor's first pastoral letter teaches on rights of immigrants
Published: November 8, 2008
By Malea Hargett; Editor
Five months after being ordained the bishop of Little Rock, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor is issuing his first pastoral letter in hopes of teaching his flock about the human rights of undocumented immigrants.
"I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me: A Pastoral Letter on the Human Rights of Immigrants" was introduced to the priests of the state Nov. 5 during a study day. On Nov. 7, diocesan employees gathered at St. John Center for a similar event.
Bishop Taylor said he believes the human rights of immigrants is a topic that many Catholics are not informed about properly.
"I hope that people will open their hearts to the call of Jesus in our time," he said in an interview with Arkansas Catholic. "There is lots of information people don't have at their disposal that is really relevant to this topic. More than that, I hope it goes down from their head to their heart and see what the Lord is asking of us. ... It is the biggest area where the teaching of the Church is not well-known."
Bishop Taylor, who is fluent in Spanish and has worked in Hispanic ministry for 28 years, said he believes being able to immigrate to another country is an "intrinsic human right."
"They do have a right to immigrate when circumstances require," he said.
He agrees illegal immigration is bad because it is nearly impossible for immigrants, predominantly from Mexico, to come to the United States legally.
"We do support them being here illegally. They have a right to be here," he said. "We are here to serve everybody. Not just Catholics. We are not a country club. We are here to bring the love of Jesus to everybody. They are here because there is no way to get documents, not because they don't want documents. They do not want to immigrate without documents. ... You can't be obliged to do what you can't do. Immigration laws should correspond to the reality."
The 30-page document includes five appendices with additional resources, information on what the U.S. bishops' conference has said and supporting Scripture references. The bishop consulted with several priests and laypeople over the past three months when writing the letter.
Booklets of the letter will be made available in all parishes and missions in English and Spanish.
In order to get parishioners to read and discuss the letter, Bishop Taylor asked Cackie Upchurch, director of Little Rock Scripture Study, to write a three-week Advent study guide for small group sharing.
"The purpose of the pastoral letter is not to just go on record but rather to teach," he said. "People learn not just by reading a document but also by dialoguing and sharing with others, especially if the concepts are new and are hard to get your mind around."
The pastoral letter will be distributed to parishioners on the feast of Christ the King Nov. 23. At the Masses, parishes are also asked to play a recorded homily by Bishop Taylor. The study sessions are expected to be held in churches through Dec. 20.
snip
You can see what we are dealing with in Little Rock and why Illegals feel comfortable coming here in droves. I no longer go to church because of Bishop Taylor. There is no reasoning with his mind. It's insanity that he preaches. God help us.
You articulate your ideas so well. Bravo. Meanwhile, nobody seems to ever mention the great injustice done to those patiently waiting in many, many countries who are just as persecuted, poor, and suffering - those who want to come here through the proper legal channels - who are hurt by the lawlessness of those entering illegally. My heart grieves for them all, but what are we to do?
I believe Pope Benedict stated that the fundamental solution would be to eliminate the need to immigrate.
Will continue reading to find out. . .and yes, thanks for ping, Mrs. Don-o
Two words: you ROCK.
Cheers!