Las Posadas call to action

Immigration Hijacks Christmas!
We have no end to the refrain "It's All About Me"! Now we cannot even celebrate Christmas without turning it into a plea for illegal immigration being sanctioned by emotional blackmail. IF this effort were put to creating legal means of emigrating to another land then the deed would most likely have already been accomplished. People need to stop playing upon one another heart-strings to justify their sense of entitlement.
Go protest at the capitols of those countries that don't take care of their own!

Illegals - NOT Holy Family!
This immigration connection to the Holy Family is misguided and an abuse of religious ideals for the sake of a political agenda. If there was a legitimate parallel to biblical context it would be more appropriately based on the Flight to Egypt since going to Bethlehem from Nazareth is a journey within the country of origin. (How about going from [name an obscure Mexican town here] to Mexico City or to a local center of justice?)
There is no reason whatsoever for the US to foot the bill for Mexico's failings. If there is culpability it should be Mexico's. Besides, paralleling illegal immigrants with Mary and Joseph is saying that those who break international or national laws are as holy as the Holy Family. And this says that the end justifies the means. Somehow this is supposed to be the thinking that leads us to bankrupt the system we pay for that is supposed to safeguard our own citizens. If our secular/civil systems were designed to cover other nations' problems we would have voted for that and have made allowances for the extra budget necessary to accomplish it.

Anonymous Dec. 22 writer may be answered as follows:
First paragraph allows the validity to compare Holy Family and undocumented migrants or would-be immigrants. No comparison is perfect. Another comparison is the Biblical account of Moses fleeing his homeland in fear of retribution for killing an Egyptian. When the laws of one country do not respect human rights, natural law makes legitimate the breaking of man-made law. In other words, one's right to live supercedes the obligation to obey a law of one's country--in this case not just a foreign country but the U. S.

Second paragraph on laws that exist and laws that might exist. The reason Comprehensive Immigration Reform will be debated in 2010 in Congress and around the country is that current laws on immigration are imperfect, unjust and prejudiced against people from less developed nations and people with skills not generally considered needed in the current economy. Because all people, regardless of skills, are the image of God and the kin of Christ, the possess human dignity that must be respected. Families disunited, when one parent tries to make a living in a different country, ought to be united for their good and the good of a society in which they live.

The less developed countries of Latin America are that way in part because of exploitative systems such as NAFTA, subsidies to U. S. farms not matched by other nations to native farms, and free trade in general which benefits large companies that pay little to producers who must accept little more than subsistance pay only to survive. Unemployment and poverty in less developed countries are at least twice, and in some areas more than four times that of our country. For many people the choice is poverty, disease and death aginst breaking an absurd, arbitrary and selfish set of U. S. imigration laws.

The post-World War II Marshall Plan recognized that Germany was so horribly ruined that it would have been inhumane to expect it to build itself up. We may not give massive foreign aid to Latin American countries hurt by NAFTA, but CIR may be a tentative effort to make conditions somewhat fairer, so that some poor people can go where better economic conditions prevail. To this point, if anyone reads how cruel was the U. S. military's "total war" against Mexico in the 1800s, not only to grab more territory but also to force that country to make ruinous economic concessions, one can appreciate at least some reasons that Mexico is less developed than the U. S. National budgets may be adjusted to more rational and humane proportions, as when wasteful, needless military spending is transferred to cover health, infrastructure, environment, education and such matters of a less aggressive, less economically dominating, more civilized society. Blessed are the peacemakers and those who hunger for justice, said the founder of Christianity. He is with us as we try "to make a more perfect union" of our counrty.

The two anonymous opponents of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) have forgotten the prophetic role of the Church, which is to urge Christians to follow Christ in their lives. Whether we do or do not feel guilt for condoning the immigration laws of the U. S., that does not excuse us from thinking about our less fortunate brothers and sisters in the human family, and then attempting (lobbying?) to make conditions fairer for them as a matter of justice, not necessarily penance. Poverty and unemployment are much worse south of the U. S. border, and families are broken apart because unduly restricive immigration laws push a desperate few to cross our border to seek work that means survival, a human need that supercedes the laws of countries to prosper. Our popes and bishops through the past century to the present recognize human rights and call on those in power to adjust economic conditions so that poverty is reduced, freedom is more prevalent and laws are more humane.

I support the work of connecting Las Posadas actions to the story of the Holy Family, as do many Catholics in America.

I would suggest people read the US Catholic Bishops statement on the reforms needed in the US immigration system, as well as read Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration.

http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/social-teachings.html