WASHINGTON (CNS) – In a joint letter to members of Congress, Catholic bishops and evangelical leaders pleaded for “common sense fixes to our immigration policies” by passing legislation this year.

Eleven bishops, including Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and half a dozen evangelical leaders, said that as religious leaders, “we live every day with the reality that our immigration system does not reflect our commitment to the values of human dignity, family unity and respect for the rule of law that define us as Americans.”

At a briefing earlier in the week, the prospects for passage of an immigration bill this term were described as not impossible but complicated.

Among the Catholics signing the letter were Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio L. Elizondo of Seattle, chairman of the Committee on Migration of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the immediate past chairman, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez.

The key evangelical signers included Leith Anderson, president, National Association of Evangelicals; the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president, National Latino Evangelical Coalition; and the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and president of Sojourners.

The letter said the signers each day “witness the human tragedies created by our current system, including the separation of families and the violation of basic human dignity.”

Echoing the language about the “rule of law” used by some opponents of immigration reform, the leaders said that “as a nation founded upon the principles of the rule of law and the centrality of family, we can no longer delay fixing this system.”

Other Catholic bishops included Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C.