Mercy sisters call for end to deportations

We are a very sad nation, with very low values. We are able to live out of two sides of our convictions or lack thereof. We are consistent in asking for respect between nations, but we sense beyond rational thinking a way to be the decision makers for all others, not for our children, they must make their own decisions.

Therein, commercialism, capitalism, war, personal gain, machismo, ecoism, egoism, without true concern for the poor. The poor today are the immigrants, the poor today are those who have no home, neither in the USA nor their birth countries. We are happy to use the other, but not happy to take our responsibility. Thank you to the Sisters of Mercy for this important national consciousness raising may we continue to act.

Pat Forster
San Rafael, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

Learn a little about how immigration works in this country. Deportation is the punishment for illegal entry. We have tons of visa programs. Yes it needs work and new categories, but this in no way means we should just "legalize them"

I agree with you on principal. Are they going to help us repay the debt that we owe to all of those other countries? We have a problem. These United states have become divided states.

When I grew up, my mother and father helped with the Russians that were fleeing from their country. They were Christians and they were the nicest people that you would ever want to be in contact with. Now my mother spoke German, as her mother and father had taught her when she was a baby. My mother helped this Russian Doctor and his wife get their citizenship and helped them in uncountable ways.

I wish that these United States would become the United States of America that it once was!

There are so may other issues that need our attention!

Have an idea of how much it costs to become a citizen? I have attemped to help folks and the minimum fees start at $1500, just to file the forms. Yes, they were here on a valid visa. What person working at or below minimum wage can accumulate that amount. And I can witness to the fact that the jobs many of the undocumented are not taking jobs from "out of work Americans." Please recognize the reality that exists for low income folks. Suggested readings: Holy Father's recent encyclicals and many Church teaching on Catholic Social teaching.

"ANONYMOUS"

You write: "Illegal aliens who come here for a 'better future' get that future on the back of American workers and American taxpayers."

But:

The undocumented do the jobs that American citizens simply will not do: Farm work . . . meat packing . . . poultry houses . . . landscaping.

You cannot get a visa into the US to be a landscaper or a grass cutter. So, the only way to get this kind of menial labor done is to tap into the impoverished, separate - but essential - floating work force that exists in virtually every major city and many small town in the US, the undocumented laborers.

These folks certainly do seek a better future here, but not "on the backs of American workers" - rather on their own hardworking backs.

And yes anonymous..they made choices...just like those corporations who exploited Mexican and Central American labor made "choices" and then abandoned these countries for even cheaper labor. Your "choices" rhetoric goes two ways...Until you move into the bigger picture not presented to the American audience by drivel commercial media..and Fox-a-tron you'll never recognize the whole story.

If you happen to believe, which I do, that our actions impact on our neighbours and our world then maybe there is a wider question here. How is, and how has American foreign policy impacted on the countries and the people who are in the US as illegal immigrants? I appreciate and value the opportunities the US has afforded to people from many other countries, however I wonder if you are ignoring the dark side of the American Dream. I do have considerable understanding of the great pain involved in divorce and the splitting up of families. I also understand the sense of helplessness that arises in such situations. However I am not convinced that setting up one marginalised group e.g. people who are in poor circumstances as a result of family breakdown, against another marginalised group such as people from other countries who are deemed to be 'illegal aliens' will bring either group closer to being able to have a life of dignity.

Our society, our communities and our country need all of us. How about a new American Dream that really values and appreciates diversity, and is really able to move beyond fear to embrace possibilities.

My back is already heavily burdened by people who are trying to take advantage of my lifestyle and taxes. Why must I also subsidize people who enter the country illegally and put a strain on law enforcement, medical services and welfare. Why must I be tolerant of illegal aliens who illegally obtain social security numbers, drivers liscenses and credit cards.

Let these people come legally, through the channels provided. If this dosen't work, why don't you go and change the system so these people can come legally. Standing on street corners and pandering publically to the hispanics does nothing except call attention to yourself.

The law is not sacred. Laws that hurt people are immoral. If there were legal routes that ordinary people could take to enter the country, most of these people would use them. Even bringing home a bride from another country is not easy.

Every worker in this country makes the economic pie bigger. Our economic problems stem from poor education and training for some of our citizens and greed on the part of the so called business leaders who are sitting on cash rather than expand their businesses. Our present problems stem from the historic financial melt down that destroyed lives, homes and businesses in this country and not from the immigration status of workers.

If we had a rational immigration policy, life would be better in the USA for everyone.

me, too, Maureen, and in fact I might be considered "over-seas" right now not a mile into Mexico to wash my clothes at the laundromat, and I got to tell you Maureen, a feel safer and more well received in Ciudad Juarez than anywhere up north.

Also, my paternal grandmother got here illegally from Ireland where a great name like Maureen Sullivan may be found often, on her sister's papers, due to a quick escape from the troubles.

I love the historical memories...until they're compared with the realities....As a person of Irish descent your ancestors at least by the 20th century were welcomed. Not true with the Irish of the 19th century who were the "first Mexicans". Now Mexicans, Central Americans and other brown-skinned people who work the fields, the meat factories, etc. while regularly being exploited by the big corporate food and produce conglomerates (I'm from California and know this as fact) are scapegoated by xenophobic, media hypocrites who cover for their corporate daddies...Thank God the bishops, nuns, priests and educated lay people are standing by them..the rest of you are part of the problem.

Because they are following Christ.

Maureen,

You need to do your homework, I'm a nun, I pay BIG taxes and give all that's left, after the government's cut, to my community. We are a thriving community, in no way in danger of dying out. This is not "yesterday's answer to today's question"...its very real for these people....we allow them to clean our toilets, but they can't be part of our lives....my grandparents also came to the states to find a better life for their families and if memory from the stories they told are any indication, they were very generous in welcoming their fellow immigrants to their country and homes, your grandparents would hang their heads in shame for you selfish attitude....remember the Gospel and how Jesus answered the question, "who is my neighbor." Here's another thought, maybe when you were working in other countries, the natives picked up on your attitude and responded in kind....I too have lived and worked in other countries and I was treated with kindness.

Maureen, the nuns aren't "telling" you. Rather they are witnessing to the state of their conscience.

If any religious sister receives wages, she pays income taxes.

My Dad came here legally as a child but my grandfather neglected to take out citizenship papers so the entire family lived here as non-citizens for decades. My uncle came illegally. A great uncle from the Irish side of my family came legally during the famine, but when our Civil War broke out, he shot himself in the foot and returned to Ireland in order to avoid being drafted. The American Indians didn't ask for papers when Europeans emigrated to their lands; in a sense all of us are descendents of illegals....

I'm sorry you had some bad experiences as a lay missionary. Perhaps those who preceded you didn't treat the "others" as equal brothers and sisters? What does it say about those missionaries as well as those among whom they lived? There's never a one-sided reality.

As to the protests of nuns for treatment in foreign lands: perhaps you're unfamiliar with efforts in behalf of persecuted christians in mid-eastern countries; with their solidrity-presence in the refugee camps in a variety of Southeast Asian countries, Kenya, Sudan, Darfur, and so on and so on.

Finally the nuns aren't the only ones protesting U.S. immigration policies. I'm sure you realize the heat this issue generates is close to only one or two more social issues: abortion and respect for homosexual rights as human beings. What I mean to say is that this issue is one of the biggies for everyone. Everyone is protesting - in one way or another. I only plead for respect for the other's position; supposedly in ths country and in our faith that's the bottom line.

Working for the Common Good is what Catholics are taught to do, maybe I'am out of date with our Modern World of Greed,Selfishess, and Materialism. The Sisters of Mercy are not dying out they are transitioning to a large number of Associate members who will keep their history alive, and their service to humanith. Young intelligent women dont want to be married to the Pope having no voice in their life. Its a different world, and the Holy Spirit is right there. Amen

Maureen, with all due respect, I'm guessing your grandparents came here legally because they could. That's not the case anymore for many immigrants. Most undocumented immigrants would love to come here legally, but the avenue to do that is often so limited that for many of them it is impossible (there are caps for various countries, for example). They are so desperate to provide a better life for their families that they take risks they wish they didn't have to take. I'll bet your grandparents would have done the same. Also, many immigrants do pay taxes and some of them don't even collect the benefits (many pay into Social Security but don't withdraw, for example). And where did you get the idea that nuns don't pay takes? God bless the Sisters of Mercy!

Anonymous in Australia, actually I'm sure the RSM's and all with whom they work know, via all human connections, that glaringly similar things happen in Australia as in the USA. It's also true in the various European countries, especially Italy, France, the UK and now Denmark which is trying to close its borders to all immigrants. Previous to the establishment of the EU rules, western European countries did as much as they could to keep eastern European peoples from emigrating/immigrating. The story of the Good Samaritan certainly seems like a 21st century fantasy rather than parable of the kingdom, doesn't it?

Have these sisters ever lived up to the name and protested against the killing of unborn children?

your selectively genocidal suggestion has held no water in WAshington since the Reagan days, from whence abstinence-only programs are all that DC funds.

Yet Peter Seewald in his recently published interview with the Pope seems to have the Pope saying condom use among males is less immoral than disease.

Only among males?
odd . . .

still, pregnancy is not a disease, right?

"How about making birth control".......excellent comment, but I do not agree on the abortion element. The Catholic Church has systematically destroyed Latin American hopes over 500 years in cooperation with the Spanish and Portugese. Our illegal immigration is directly related to overpopulation of Latin American countries and to impoverishment of the indigenous peoples. This is the direct fault and responsibility of many generations of popes. The Vatican is at the root of most of the problems in Latin America and is at substantial fault for our illegal aliens situation in the US. STOP supporting the Vatican and the Boys in Red!

Your post is vague to me. Which law are you speaking of? The law of the land or the law of God? If you go to Mass, you know that last weekend St. Paul informed us that the law is fulfilled by love, and the scripture goes on to say we are to love not only ourselves and also our neighbors but our neighbors as ourselves. I believe the law of Love or the law of God shall be superior to the law of man, and like Martin Luther King Jr articulated in his "letters from Birmingham Jail" it can be appropriate to disobey the laws of man.

So, as I said, your comment was vague to me; we you suggesting the sisters advocating and witness was against God's law or American Law. I can see American Law here being in the cross-hairs, but as vowed religious they are to love their neighbors, walk with their God, and follow the command of Jesus Christ: when asked/tested by the scribe on how to inherit heaven, Jesus gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan, in that "the one who showed/tread him (the neighbor) mercy," showed love to his neighbor.

"Go and do likewise".