How the Church Can Help Solve the Immigration Mess

Mention our borders and immigration and a lively discussion is almost certain to ensue.  Strong feelings exist about both subjects.

In my opinion, in dealing with our southern border (and northern as well), it seems abundantly clear that the US should first secure our borders.  Stopping the flow of illegal immigrants, human trafficking, drugs, and heaven-knows what else, should be a governmental priority.

Once our borders are secure, we can have a healthy national debate on a realistic immigration policy, addressing such questions as:  How many immigrants can we reasonably take in?  From where?  Under what criteria?  There are terrible places all over the world – so who gets to win the lottery and find refuge in the US?

These are tough questions, and they deserve sober consideration by the American public.

It also seems abundantly clear that illegal immigrants who pose a danger to society should be immediately deported.  There may be some quibbling over what constitutes a “dangerous criminal,” but in principle it should be common sense to deport them.  Joe Tevington discusses this, and more, in a recent Catholic Stand article.

What remains is the difficult issue of the millions of illegal immigrants of good will who simply desire to remain in the US and become productive citizens.  Many of these people are already productive, but none of them are legal citizens.

I think our government is culpable for creating the mess, more so than the illegal immigrants themselves.  As such it has an obligation to provide a path to citizenship for the many good immigrants who are here.  I also propose that the Catholic Church can play a far more virtuous role in serving this population and our country than it has played thus far.

Laws Were Broken – But by Who?

“Illegal immigrant” has become a hot-button term, in large part because of the word illegal.   Thus we encounter substitute euphemisms like “undocumented immigrants.”  Regardless, those who advocate mass deportation of a large percentage of illegal immigrants argue that it is simply because they are, in fact, here illegally.

I don’t doubt laws were broken.  Again, it seems to be common sense that if we have millions of people in the US who haven’t gone through the proper legal process to be here, there must be several laws that have been trampled.

What is not clear is who did the trampling.

If “we” entice foreigners to come here, in some cases providing caravans with food, water and medical assistance, and leave our borders open, and guide them in the “magic words” to use at the border to come through, and don’t aggressively track and follow-up on their whereabouts – then who exactly is it that broke the laws?

I think the argument could well be made that the greater culpability is with the party that enticed and aided and abetted, rather than with the immigrant. The immigrant, after all, had little if any knowledge of US immigration law.  In some (many?) cases they were even told that it was the law that they had to be given refuge (of course, in certain circumstances that may, indeed, be true).

Objection!

Some people might object that “it’s not my fault that we had incompetent, and even rogue, government administrations that facilitated this mess.”

The response to that objection is that, as a nation, our fates rise and fall together.  “We the people of the United States of America” are all in this together.

Let’s say I’m on a sports team and have the best game of my life.  I have all time high scoring as well as assists and defensive plays.  But let’s say the rest of my team has their worst game – all time high unforced errors and even personal fouls.  When the game is over I don’t get to claim the loss shouldn’t apply to me – my fate rises and falls with the team.

I’m not claiming to make a rigorous legal case here.  But on the basis of common sense, let alone Christian compassion, it seems that we have millions of illegal immigrants who are “illegal” because of our government’s actions and inactions.   If that is the case, then it is our national responsibility to see this through and help them become loyal, productive US citizens.

So yes, our government should create a legal path to citizenship for many of these current illegal aliens.  It is primarily the fault of our government that they are now here.

A Truly Catholic Response

Creating a legal path to citizenship has been a thorny issue for decades.  It would probably go a long way to help our government make that commitment if the Catholic Church upped its game.  If the Church made it known that it would lead the way in helping shepherd that cohort of immigrants through the process of becoming productive citizens once a path was in place, it just might help make such a path a reality.

But – and here is the key – the Catholic Church should do this independently.

Up to now the Catholic Church’s role with illegal immigrants has been little more than an NGO (non-governmental organization). In essence, it was being paid hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money that also facilitated the illegal immigration.

Even if this was done with “good intentions,” for a host of reasons it simply is not a healthy role for the Catholic Church to be so cozy with a godless government bureaucracy.  In any event, it seems the flow of tax money has stopped and is not likely to resume.

Here is a far better role – the Catholic Church should lead the way in sponsoring those immigrants who came here illegally.  It could do this by providing the needed assistance for them to become citizens of the United States.

What to do?

What would that entail?  For starters, it could help them learn the English language.  It could further help them learn the history and customs of the United States (but not the dumpster-deserving “critical theory” history of the US).  And it could help them find jobs and/or job training.  It could, perhaps, even help them with personal loans.  In all circumstances it is an opportunity to present Christ to, and encounter Him in, the immigrant.

Our Churches have many parishioners who are passionate for social justice.  This is a chance to step up to the plate, not hiding behind some godless government bureaucracy, but up close and lovingly personal.

Catholic Principles

As opposed to a godless government bureaucracy, the Catholic Church is the source and custodian of great wisdom on public service and social justice.  Two principles form the basis of this wisdom.

Solidarity recognizes we are all connected as a human family, and particularly united with believers in the Body of Christ.  It is in solidarity that Pope Saint Gregory the Great stated, “For, when we administer necessaries of any kind to the indigent, we do not bestow our own, but render them what is theirs; we rather pay a debt of justice than accomplish works of mercy” (“Pastoral Rule,” Book 3, Chapter 21). A man’s wealth isn’t actually his own, in solidarity it belongs to the poor (because it really all belongs to God, anyway).

Subsidiarity reminds us that government isn’t our savior.  God is our savior acting through the Body of Christ, inspired by His Holy Spirit. It holds that problems are best solved at the most local level possible.  And subsidiarity encourages human interactivity and the direct practice of Christian charity and virtue.

Subsidiarity also guards against government tyranny thinly veiled as welfare.   Alex de Tocqueville pithily reminds us of this in “Democracy in America”:  “For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness: it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances—what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?” (Book 4, Chapter VI, par. 4).

Charity

And let’s further consider charity.  Bernie Sanders once voiced his contempt for charity because to him it represents an inequality, and from his warped socialist perspective no one should have more of anything than anyone else; better yet the government should have all of it and decide who gets what.  Here’s how the New York Times reported it in 1981 (when Sanders was mayor of Burlington, VT):

”I don’t believe in charities,” said Mayor Sanders, bringing a shocked silence to a packed hotel banquet room. The Mayor, who is a Socialist, went on to question the ‘fundamental concepts on which charities are based’ and contended that government, rather than charity organizations, should take over responsibility for social programs.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski, discussing the US bishop’s stance on EWTN’s “The World Over,” had this to say (at the 3:23 mark), “It’s not government money we’re receiving, it’s our money.  Because the government doesn’t have any money, it’s taxpayer money.”  Confiscatory taxes dabbled back out by the government is exactly what communists like Sanders dream of – the government doling out largesse and keeping the Catholic Church like a lap dog on a short leash.

If the Catholic Church (meaning not just the hierarchy, but the Body of Christ) truly believes in this cause, then the Church should support it.  And it should support it with strident charity – rather than the “cheap grace” of tax handouts from a godless government bureaucracy.  This bureaucracy all-to-often ties “charity” with goals that are antithetical to the Gospel, such as pushing the trans agenda, population control, and so on.

Answering Some Objections

Some might say, “How can the Church possibly afford this?  Many of our diocese are already in bankruptcy?”

As George Bailey might answer, “You’re thinking about this all wrong.  The money isn’t in the Church.  It’s in the Johnson family.  And the Romero family.  Don’t you see?  We’ve got to pull together!”  The backbone of the Catholic Church is the individual families.  And many, if not most of the Catholic families in the US can afford to sponsor an immigrant.

Another objection might be, “There are already many families in our diocese who are living in poverty.  How is it fair to them if we sponsor illegal immigrants, but don’t give them the same assistance?”

I would say that that’s a very good question.  If only we had the Church of Francis Cabrini, Katharine Drexel, Dorothy Day, Junipero Serra, and Elizabeth Ann Seton to help sort that out.   Oh, wait . . . that is our Church.

I’m advocating that the Catholic Church should get back to doing what it once did best – digging deep to help the poor and the marginalized.  Something in the Church died when it abandoned the inner city for the suburbs.  We need to return to those roots.

A Noble Calling

The Catholic Church (at least in the US) has been bogged down in woke ideologies and bureaucratic nonsense that are far below her.  She is in need of a noble calling, and the immigration mess is in need of a strong, moral champion.

Perhaps tackling immigration will re-engage the Church with the humanitarian disaster of our inner cities.  It may also help stop the erosion of the family, and the de-Christianization of society as a whole.

Our current immigration situation is, in fact, hellacious.  But if memory serves, Someone once said, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church.”