Gathering calls for 'fair and humane' immigration policies

After the collapse of efforts to pass a national immigration reform bill last summer, more than 850 Catholic activists and service providers who work with immigrants have gathered in Washington, D.C., this week to call for what one American cardinal described as a more “fair and humane” system.

The July 28-31 conference, sponsored by the U.S. bishops and titled “Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice,” heralds a major push from the church on immigration heading into the 2008 elections.

“This is an important moment,” said Kevin Appleby, director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of Migration and Refugee Policy. “America could become more restrictive, belying our history as nation of immigrants.”

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who delivered a Monday keynote address, said the hallmarks of the “fair and humane” approach sought by the Catholic church include keeping families together, providing a path to legal status for immigrants, and promoting economic and social development in sending nations so people don’t feel compelled to migrate.

“The church is going to make immigration a major issue in ’08,” Mahony told NCR.

-------------------------------
See this related story: Head of U.S. immigration enforcement office sees common ground with church immigration activists.
-------------------------------

A subsidiary motive for the conference, according to Donald Kerwin of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, is to offer moral support during what Kerwin described as a “very difficult time” for pro-immigrant voices in America.

“There’s a well-organized, well-funded group out there that will be sure to inundate your offices with calls, e-mails, and nasty letters mischaracterizing what you do,” Kerwin said in a telephone interview.

One sign of the times came on Monday, when Bishop Jaime Soto, the coadjutor bishop of Sacramento and national chair of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, appeared on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs” show. At least five times in the lead-in to the segment, host Kitty Pilgrim, filling in that night for Dobbs, described the church’s position on immigration as an “amnesty agenda” – a label both Soto and Kerwin deny.

“That’s totally inaccurate,” Kerwin said. “We’re in favor of voluntary, legal immigration. We know how harmful illegal immigration is, especially for the people who are forced into it.”

In a telephone interview with NCR, Soto said those who know the realities facing the estimated 38 million people in America who are foreign-born are frustrated not only by stalled legislation, but also by what they see as increasingly punitive enforcement actions. Soto pointed to a recent raid on a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, said to be the largest such raid in American history, which detained 390 illegal immigrants.

While Soto said the bishops accept the need to enforce the law, such raids often drive families apart, he said, and punish “some of the most courageous and hard-working members of our community.”

These may be tough times in the broader culture, but Catholic activists can take comfort from the strong show of episcopal support for immigration reform this week. In addition to Mahony, Cardinals Edward Egan of New York and the emeritus Cardinal of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, spoke at the July 28-31 conference, and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Refugees, is on hand to offer Vatican backing.

“The bishops have been prophetic on these issues,” Kerwin said. “They’ve given us immense amounts of support and cover, often at great expense in terms of the hostile reactions they’ve received.”

Observers say that opinion at the Catholic grassroots, on the other hand, is more divided. The U.S. bishops are currently planning to commission a poll of Catholic attitudes on immigration, but scattered indications suggest that Catholics aren’t much different from the general public.

In 2004, for example, voters in Arizona adopted a measure requiring proof of citizenship before anyone can register to vote or apply for public benefits. The proposition passed by 56 percent to 44, and exit polls suggest that margin included 55 percent of Arizona Catholics.

“There’s a large percentage of Catholics who need to go through a conversion process” with regard to immigration, said Martin Gutierrez of Catholic Charities in New Orleans. Guttierez said many Catholics share negative perceptions of the broader culture, such as that immigrants take jobs away from American citizens, or that they don’t want to learn English or to integrate into American society – all of which, he said, is largely false.

Soto conceded the point.

“Many Catholics have been persuaded by the more visceral arguments against immigrants offered in the media and by some politicians,” he said.

Soto expressed confidence that education can bring Catholics around, beginning with reflection on what the church is doing on the ground to welcome new arrivals.

“There’s a popular saying that you should practice what you preach. I agree with that, but I also think there’s a certain virtue in preaching what we practice,” Soto said.

“The Catholic community has been very successful in integrating and assimilating large immigrant and refugee communities. We are a counter-point to the fear and anxiety the broader society often feels,” he said. “We haven’t stopped serving immigrants and refugees in our social service agencies or in our hospitals, and people understand the reasons why we do that.”

“The virtue of our practice can help to deflect some of the more poisoned polemic that’s out there,” Soto said.

Participants in the “Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice” conference spent much of Wednesday on Capitol Hill knocking on congressional doors. Celine Kennelly of the Irish Immigration Pastoral Center in San Francisco, who met with members of the California delegation, said that lawmakers and their staffs expressed a particular interest in the human dimension of current policies.

“It’s the human story, human needs, human dignity and human rights, and our testimony about the kinds of cases we deal with” that caught their attention, Kennelly told NCR.

For the moment, Kennelly said, pro-immigration lawmakers are focusing on smaller measures, such as a bill to assist the spouses of U.S. military personnel who are facing deportation procedures. The fate of comprehensive reform, Kennelly said legislators told her, will depend upon “how the elections go and where the majority lies” in the next congress.

John L. Allen Jr. is NCR’s Senior Correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@ncronline.org.