Everyone should favor reforming our nation’s broken immigration policies. It all depends on how you define “reform.”
Some religious leaders, including Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory, define it as granting amnesty — immediate legal status and a path to citizenship — to 12 million-plus illegal immigrants.
Roman Catholics are being told by their bishops that it is somehow a moral imperative to bestow amnesty and citizenship, despite the inherent immorality of denying scarce jobs to poor or unemployed Americans and opening them up to invasive foreigners. Some religious open-border proponents even cite God’s command to the ancient Israelites to treat “strangers” as natives and to love them as themselves.
Remember, though: Approximately 22 million Americans are unemployed. The Senate bill the archbishop favors allows 30 million illegals to attain legal status in the next decade, which will result in increased unemployment and a lowering of wages. The teenage unemployment rate is already at an all-time high, thanks to illegals stealing teens’ jobs.
Catholic elites are out of touch when they overlook that amnesty harms vulnerable Americans. Catholic parishioners, on the other hand, prefer traditional national sovereignty; according to a 2009 Zogby poll, 64 percent preferred enforcement over amnesty.
The archbishop admits that U.S. bishops “have advocated for comprehensive immigration reform” — their code word for amnesty — “for the past two decades.” They supported the one-time 1986 congressional amnesty but now want more! Could it be because the bishops know that drawing more Latin American illegals here will fill pews and collection plates? Rewarding lawbreakers with a path to citizenship is an immoral slap at immigrants who came here legally, became permanent residents, learned English, assimilated into our mainstream culture and became citizens.
Those advocating amnesty as ordained by their Gospel of St. Trendy conveniently ignore that, throughout the Old Testament, it was God’s plan for ancient Israel to maintain its national integrity. When the Israelites went against this design by diluting her character with that of surrounding nations, God’s wrath came down.
Is there really a parallel between the “strangers” of ancient times and those who have sneaked across our borders, used fake identification, cheated on taxes, used public services intended for citizens, taken jobs and committed violent crimes? To suggest we welcome such people and give them citizenship on the basis of vague biblical “morality” or “justice” is to ignore the balance of obligations in Old Testament law.
Real “reform” means enhanced border and internal enforcement, fixing the exit-entry visa system so we know who enters and leaves (to assist in thwarting terrorists like the Boston bombers), and streamlining guest worker programs so that, if no American is displaced, a temporary foreign employee can fill a job.
Christians are taught to pray for wisdom and discernment, which consists of determining what works best in life. Another mass amnesty, coupled with no money for systemic reform or enforcement — which is the heart of the flawed Senate bill — is not wise reform. We should not expect foreigners to respect our laws if we don’t respect them ourselves.
Phil Kent, a senior warden of St. Hilda’s Anglican Catholic Church in Atlanta, is a member of the Georgia Immigration Enforcement Review Board.
