My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
One of the most critical issues facing the incoming administration is immigration reform. During his campaign speeches and debates, President-elect Trump made sweeping statements not only about immigrants, especially Mexicans, but also about building a 2,000 mile-long wall to protect the U.S. from being overrun by immigrants and about the deportation of all 11 million undocumented immigrants, which he has not retracted but seems to have toned it down by speaking of undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions. This is a national challenge that cannot be resolved only by the incoming administration, but rather requires national reflection on our history as a nation of immigrants and on our increasingly immigrant Church.
I have spent my entire priesthood and episcopacy working with immigrants; so much so that I was motivated to get a master’s degree in social work to better serve migrants. My studies continued with earning a doctoral degree in social work policy where my doctoral dissertation was “Profiling Undocumented Aliens in the New York Metropolitan Area.” I studied the undocumented people in New Jersey and New York, and my actual profile was verified by the results of the legalization program of 1986.
During that legal debate, I represented the U.S. Bishops in negotiations for this program. The results showed that undocumented were well-integrated into society, working alongside citizens and lawful permanent residents. The myths about immigrants taking excessive public welfare, not paying taxes or not having Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) deducted from their pay were disproved, not only by my limited investigation, but also by the analysis of this legalization program. In many ways, generalizations, and not specific information, have colored the debate for many years.
It must be clarified that the Church’s teaching is that nations have a responsibility to control their borders, but that the human dignity and human rights of migrants should always be respected and protected for the common good. It also must be considered that people have a right to find political, economic and social opportunities, first of all in their own homeland, but if not there, they can migrate to support themselves and their families. This is especially true for refugees and asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution in certain countries and who should be afforded protection.
Many Americans have focused on the problem of illegal entry into the U.S. and that undocumented migrants are lawbreakers. The fact is that illegal entry has historically been treated as a violation of civil law, and is a misdemeanor. The incentive to migrate illegally is caused by a broken immigration system which does not allow for prompt family unification, and one that does not meet the labor needs of our country. In fact, during the economic downturn of 2008, far fewer undocumented immigrants came to our country. Jobs are what attract immigrants.
It is exactly in this area that the immigration system needs a fix. We can build a “Great Wall of China” at our border but it will not stop people when they can find employment. Most employers are law-abiding citizens and would not hire anyone who would not give them a Social Security Number. There is a system now in place called “E-Verify” in which employers can verify Social Security Numbers which are valid for employment. While flawed, this system will likely be expanded by the incoming administration.
If so, there must also be relief for law-abiding undocumented workers by giving them status in our country which has benefited from their labor. In fact, the E-Verify program cannot be effective without providing immigration status to these workers. This is the only way in which we can stop undocumented immigration, by closing the work place and not worrying so much about the border. Although border enforcement is important, it is most necessary to stop the transport of illegal drugs to the U.S. and to stop the flow of firearms and drug proceeds from the country. These drugs come because of the demand from the U.S., just as the demand for labor has attracted people.
Most recently by “Executive Order,” President Obama gave a temporary reprieve from removal and employment authorization to undocumented persons who were brought to this country as children. The program is called DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). Another program for the 3.8 million undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents has been blocked in court. Many immigrant families are composed of both American-born citizens and undocumented persons. The principle of family unity is important for our Church in keeping families together.
We recognize that something has to change. Our laws must better reflect our need for immigrants, while at the same time recognize the limitations of the ability of our country to absorb migrants. This is especially the case when we understand the refugee situation. Again, one of the campaign promises of President-elect Trump is to use extreme vetting on refugees coming into the U.S. I am not sure what extreme vetting means, however, the vetting now in place, which I know very well as I spent six years as the executive director of the USCCB refugee resettlement program, is as strict as it can be.
The fear that some foreign terrorist might use the refugee program to gain entrance into the U.S. is highly unlikely. The terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001 has taught us that terrorists have used much easier means to gain access to our country. When we compare ourselves to the situation in Europe today where there is little vetting of refugees and asylum seekers, we can take pride in our ability to screen out those who would harm our nation.
Part of the solution to our problem would be to use existing law to regularize the situation of long-standing undocumented aliens. The specific instrument of the law is called “registry” which has been part of the immigration law since the 1920s. Registry is aimed at regularizing long-term undocumented immigrants who have deep roots in our country. In order to qualify, “an applicant must have been in the U.S. unlawfully since before the most recent cutoff date (Jan. 1, 1972), be of good moral character, not be ineligible for U.S. citizenship, and not be deportable as a terrorist or a Nazi.” If the registry date was advanced, for example, to ten years from the present date, two-thirds of undocumented people could be legalized. In other words, we would have solved the problem of undocumented persons and screened them against criminal and security databases. By contrast, mass deportation would not be a humanitarian solution to this otherwise fixable problem.
As we consider immigration policy, we touch the heart of our nation which has been built by immigrants, many of whom never had to worry about legal entry, including our grandparents and great-grandparents who came before 1920. Our nation has the iconic great symbol of the Statue of Liberty. If we cannot accept immigrants and refugees in our present day, our future will not reflect America’s proud past and we will become a very different nation indeed, to our own and to the world’s detriment.
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