Now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship. Our country is facing many challenges at home and abroad. There are people in our midst, particularly vulnerable children, who we see suffering from lack of legal protections because of their immigration status.
Delaying and ignoring the real problems for political purposes has not brought solutions but only exacerbated the suffering of immigrant peoples and hurt our country at large. The Catholic bishops of the U.S. have long advocated for immigrants and their families; we seek comprehensive reform that allows people to earn citizenship in a way that recognizes their inherent dignity.
Why are the Catholic bishops involved in this issue?
Immigration — and immigration reform — directly impact human beings and thus has moral implications. Our nation’s immigration system is adversely affecting the rights and dignity of human beings living in our country, a reality the Catholic community witnesses each day in parishes, social service programs and hospitals. Families are being separated. Workers are being exploited. People are dying in the desert. The creation of a pathway to legal status and, eventually, citizenship is a matter of justice and human dignity, as it would help protect immigrants from this suffering. Christians are taught by the words of Jesus to serve others because we encounter Christ in each other.
We have all benefited from the labor of those who pick our crops, serve in our restaurants, build our homes and perform a multitude of services, often at low wages and without the protection of the law. Keeping some of our brothers and sisters in legal shadows and denying them a fair share of the fruits of their labor is offensive to their dignity as human beings and children of God. It sanctions a permanent underclass in our society, which our Founding Fathers fought against and the Civil War sought to end. As a moral matter, as a nation we cannot accept the toil and taxes of these immigrants without offering them the protection of the law. We cannot have it both ways.
Many Catholics and others of good will rightly ask about the rule of law. Should we provide legal status to persons who have broken the law? A reasonable question. We must consider, however, that any path to citizenship is far from easy. Those who undertake it will be required to pay their debt and wait in line. We also must consider that our current system does not provide the legal means for low-skilled workers to enter the country safely and legally, even though we depend on their labor.
The Catholic bishops support adherence to civil law and recognize the right of sovereign nations to protect the integrity of their borders. Immigration reform would restore the rule of law, not undermine it, and would preserve this right. However, this right should be exercised in conjunction with, not to the exclusion of, the protection of human rights and needs. Immigration reform, which includes a path to citizenship, can no longer be delayed.
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory oversees the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta.
