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The immigration reform bill died in
the U.S. Senate June 7 after it failed a
second test vote to limit debate. That
comprehensive measure tied together
tighter border security with a “guest
worker” program and offered legal status
and a chance for citizenship to the
estimated 12 and a half million illegal
immigrants now in the United States.
What was the sticking point? The
program sounded too much like
amnesty, as if rewarding those who have
violated our law by entering this country
illegally. Amnesty was tried in 1986,
but the other promise of that law—better border enforcement—never materialized.
Why do so many people risk their
lives to enter the United States, split up
their families and work without benefits
for what most of us would consider
low wages? They endure these for what
they hope will be a better life and jobs.
On this Labor Day, we need to consider
jobs in light of the immigration
bill debacle.
SPONSORED LINKS
 Work in Catholic Teaching
“Work is more than a way to make a living;
it is a form of continuing participation
in God’s creation,” say the U.S.
bishops in Sharing Catholic Social Teaching:
Challenges and Directions (1998).
The Bible starts by describing the
work of creation. We are created in the
image of this “worker God.”
In the Footsteps of Jesus: A Resource Manual
on Catholic Social Teaching, the print
companion to a USCCB video, contains
an essay that summarizes work’s threefold
moral significance in Catholic social
teaching: “Work is the major arena
for self-expression and self-realization.
Work is the ordinary way to provide for
ourselves and our families. Work is a
principal means of contributing to the
wider community and the common
good. Pope John Paul II declared work
the ‘key’ to the social question in his
encyclical letter On Human Work (Laborem Exercens), #10-11.”
But what if that work is just over the
U.S. border?
Better Border Enforcement
Especially in the wake of 9/11, a country
has a right—an obligation even—to
control its borders.
Most Republican senators opposed
the immigration reform bill and demanded
that the Bush administration,
which had supported the bill, redouble
its enforcement efforts against illegal
immigration.
But Congress’s failure to pass any bill
on this measure means that Homeland
Security feels it cannot control our borders,
argues frustrated Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff.
The bill’s demise means no mandatory
employer verification system to
weed out unauthorized workers; no
increased penalties for ID counterfeiters
or rogue employers who knowingly hire
illegal immigrants; no tamper-proof
driver’s licenses; and no immediate $4.4
billion to beef up border security.
Still, the Border Patrol has already
been authorized to swell to 18,000
agents, build 370 miles of fencing,
create a “virtual” fence of electronic
surveillance and conduct more worksite-enforcement
raids.
Catholic Teaching at Odds
Archbishop John Vlazny of Portland,
Oregon, called a June 12 Immigration
and Naturalization Service raid on a
produce plant there “an affront to a
nation whose tradition has always welcomed
the stranger in search of the
security and livelihood which he cannot
find in the country of his origin.”
The archbishop asked Catholic
parishes and individuals to offer assistance
and support to families affected
by this raid.
Boise Bishop Michael P. Driscoll, in
a June 4 pastoral issued three days
before the immigration reform stalled,
admitted that the Church’s teaching
“may be at odds” with popular sentiment.
Bishop Driscoll insists that
Catholic social teaching compels believers
to work for change: “We stand
firmly with our faith tradition which
calls us to protect human life and dignity,
to serve the poor, the vulnerable
and the stranger in our midst and to
challenge unjust policies.”
Now there may be more hesitation
about hiring legal immigrants. “Employers
want to hire legal workers, but
under the current situation they are
between the devil and the deep blue sea
in terms of hiring folks who appear to
have legitimate documents,” said Bill
Hammond, head of the Texas Association
of Business.
Already, farmers in Colorado and
other states who depend on immigrant
workers are facing labor shortages. A
guest worker program would have
solved this.
The U.S. economy needs immigrants
to make it work. In most places, immigrants
are not “stealing” jobs from U.S.
citizens. But illegal immigrants help
maintain the low wages and few benefits
many workers receive.
Expressing Catholic leaders’ disappointment
at the Senate’s failure to
pass the immigration reform bill,
Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino,
California, chairman of the
bishops’ Committee on Migration, said:
“The status quo is morally unacceptable
and should not be allowed to stand.
The U.S. bishops shall continue to
point out the moral deficiencies in the
immigration system and work toward
justice until it is achieved.”
U.S. Catholics—most of us descendants
of immigrants—need to listen to
our bishops and our consciences on this
issue. A new bill for immigration reform
will probably not surface until after the
2008 elections, but the topic will be hot
in the upcoming campaign. A better
solution must be found.—B.B. |
