The Catholic Church and Illegal Immigration

I love my Church. I love the Catholic faith with its rich traditions and Christian teachings along a nearly two millennium line of apostolic succession from the days that our Lord walked the earth as fully man and fully God. I love that the Catholic faith has always been steadfast in it doctrines of faith in words, if not always deeds. (We are, after all, a church made up of sinful men and women.) That being said, I still have a few issues with my beloved church and some of its moral teachings.

I am not sure that I am right, and in fact I likely am wrong in my thinking, but it really irks me that the Catholic Church in the United States seems to be so strongly pro-immigration of the illegal type. This has bothered me for some time but was brought to the forefront anew this weekend when at the end of Mass, Monsignor got up at the ambo and said that next week the diocese of Salt Lake (which encompasses all of Utah) would be handing out pre-written post cards to us that are addressed to our two senators and congressmen.

The post cards in question are stating how the need for comprehensive immigration reform is needed so that the millions of "undocumented immigrants" living in the shadows of our country can be brought into our society legally. The thought is that thousands of these post cards from parishioners throughout the diocese will flood our representatives' offices so that they will renew their quest for the "right kind" of immigration reform.

Now I absolutely agree that our immigration policies are horrendous and are in desperate need of overhaul, but the legislation our Church is wanting here is to grant amnesty to those that have broken our immigration laws; laws which are even more stringent and far more heavily enforced in the main country from which a majority of these immigrants have come.

While our immigration law is poor and needs to be overhauled so that a reasonable amount of people can indeed enter, work, and live legally in our country, it strikes me as foolish and unfair to those that have entered legally for us to grant amnesty to others that chose to not obey our laws. Its not so much that it punishes those that have played by the rules but rather it rewards those that chose not to do so.

Now I am not unsympathetic to the plight of many poor immigrants, and indeed had I been born in Mexico City or Tijuana and had a family to support, I might very well have risked the same perils many illegal immigrants have encountered in coming to this country. I would hope that I would have done so legally had such been my situation, but I truly do not know. Regardless, this does not mean that those coming here illegally are justified in doing so.

I know, as I am sure most people do, both sides of the argument as to the benefits and detraction's of illegal immigration. Yes, immigrants tend to do more of the menial and tedious jobs that most of us spoiled Americans will not and they do indeed contribute much to this country. However, the burden that is placed on our schools, hospitals, prisons, and welfare programs, just to name a few, far outweigh the economic benefit of excusing their illegal entry into the United States.

This issue is particularly difficult in Salt Lake as there tends to be a very large contingent of illegal aliens here and absolutely most are very good people in the whole. Further, our Bishop John Wester is the chairman for immigration for the Catholic Church in the United States and thereby places a lot of emphasis on reform that is favorable to "undocumented workers". Now I think Bishop Wester is a very good and loving man and is honestly doing what he thinks Christ would want done, but unfortunately this heathen Catholic that I am is just not able to follow the logic behind it. It is something that about which I have prayed.

Many cynical people say that the Church is so pro-immigration of this ilk because a vast majority of the immigrants are Catholic and help to revitalize the Church and fill its coffers. I would like to think that while this may be partially true, this is not the main reason for the Church's support at all.

I feel the best option is to enforce our border security to stop the flow into our country and to impose draconian fines the very first time on those companies that are caught knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. If this is done consistently and without prejudice, the jobs for illegals will dry up and the immigrants will likely return home once their primary reason for coming here no longer exists. We then need to re-evaluate and adjust accordingly the number of immigrants that can be allowed to enter this country each year in order to fulfill the work needs of our companies and farmers.

This will bring the otherwise good people that come here into the country illegally to become a part of our society and to not have to worry about hiding in the shadows or being exploited by those evil enough to do so. It seems to me that this would be more merciful and caring in the long run to our immigrant friends.

But again, perhaps I am mistaken and Bishop Wester and my beloved Catholic Church is correct in their position on this. I honestly am not sure. What do you think?