Bishop Wenski - Speeches

Pastoral Awareness Day - March 2006

Abbreviated Remarks of Bishop Thomas Wenski
Pastoral Awareness Day - March 4, 2006
Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church

No one should be surprised that the Catholic Church has taken a strong stance in favor of immigrants. After all, many newcomers are in fact Catholics or come from Catholic lands. And most of us Catholics fortunate to have been born in the United States are only a generation or two at most removed from the immigrant experience. And those who know their American history are aware of how much the anti-immigrant nativism that emerged in the 19th century was a manifestation of a deep Anti-Catholicism that has yet to be fully expunged from our national consciousness.

Our “pro-immigrant” advocacy is about more than “enlightened self-interest”. It is a lived application of the gospel message itself. As the Bishops of the US and Mexico wrote in their historic 2003 pastoral letter, “Strangers No Longer, Together on the Journey of Hope”: “Our common faith in Jesus Christ moves us to search for ways that favor a spirit of solidarity. It is a faith that transcends borders and bids us to overcome all forms of discrimination and violence so that we may build relationships that are just and loving.”

Never has this call to solidarity been needed more than today. A populist “neo-nativism”, railing about so-called “illegal aliens”, labels those who have come to our land seeking a better life for themselves and their families as “law-breakers”.  Recently legislation has been proposed (passed in the house, HR 4437) that would criminalize their presence in the U.S.  And it is a shame that the sponsor of this legislation is a Catholic.   If enacted, HR 4437 would alter basic American values of fairness and due process and severely weaken our asylum and refugee protection system. Its scope and reach would extend to US citizens as well, including those such as our parishioners who offer in an act of mercy basic sustenance to an undocumented migrant.

The reality is that because of our inadequate and antiquated immigration laws, these immigrants are not so much “breaking the law” as being “broken” by it. Illegal immigration shouldn’t be tolerated;  but, the solution lies not in punishing the victims, for these “illegal workers” often face discrimination and exploitation; but, in providing legal avenues for them to regularize their status in our country. The nativist call to expel them is impractical and cynical; our lawmakers’ reluctance to enact truly comprehensive immigration reform is also impractical and cynical and, cowardly to boot. Laws that would help match a willing worker with a willing employer will do more to fix the
“immigration crisis” than higher fences along our borders.

Our American experience has shown that immigrants bring new energy, hope and vitality to our society. Immigrants have made America stronger, not weaker; they have made America richer, not poorer; they have made America better, not worse. Today, with an aging native born population, immigrants are still needed to fill jobs that keep America’s economic engine humming.

Antiquated and inadequate immigration laws are indeed problematic: employers are deprived of a legal work force; immigrant workers are denied the protection of law; families are divided for unacceptable lengths of time, smugglers often victimize and sometimes kill the people they traffic. These are problems that comprehensive legislation must address. However, the newcomer in our midst, even if he or she has no “papers” is not a “problem” but a person, a person in whom we should recognize the face of the Lord. “For, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Mt 25: 35)

Hispanics are already the largest minority group in the United States. They also make up the largest proportion of the more than 40 million immigrants that have reached these shores —legally or illegally- since the mid-1960’s when the 1920-era immigration restrictions were lifted. 

Taken as a whole, they represent great opportunity and great hope for U.S. society and the Catholic Church in America. (Already more than 20% of priests ordained in the United States each year are foreign born — and a significant number of these are, of course, Hispanics.)  Hispanic immigrants can, I believe, renew American society, for they represent an antidote to the individualism and moral relativism that has migrated from our elites into our popular culture. 

Immigrants, and Hispanics in particular, who seek economic opportunity in our nation still believe in the “American dream.”  They believe that with hard work and opportunity one can become somebody in this country.  This is reflected in all economic levels from the professional to the humble migrant worker.  It is reflected particularly in those whose contributions and potential usefulness to American society many question, namely the poor immigrants who take jobs that Americans don’t want.  The jobs that Americans would disparage as “dead-end” jobs are, for these immigrants, truly “entry-level” jobs.  

Some express concerns that these new 21st century immigrants will not integrate into American society as successfully as earlier 19th century immigrants did.  However, these fears seem to be unfounded.  Hispanics do want to learn to speak English and they are generally successful in doing so.  Their values, dedication to hard work, strong attachment to the nuclear and extended family, and traditional views of morality, have been the core values of America since before its founding.

One of the central teachings of Vatican II was that “man can only realize himself through the sincere gift of himself.”  In a culture increasingly self-absorbed and self-centered, Hispanic immigrants witness to a profoundly Catholic “theology of the gift.”  For in most cases, they have immigrated not just to seek “self-fulfillment” but to be able to help their loved ones. 

In many cases, their coming here represents considerable self-sacrifice —as they leave loved ones behind — not to abandon them but in order to help them.  The millions of dollars sent home in remittances is testimony to this “theology of the gift.”

Hispanic immigrants offer America opportunity almost as much as America offers opportunity to them.  Most studies focus on their “mano de obra,” their contribution to the work force. That is not to be disparaged—especially with low birth rates among more established American populations and the looming entry of the baby boomers into retirement.  However, their greatest potential contribution—and America’s greatest opportunity—is the contribution of their traditional values to the renewal of our culture.

Indeed, Hispanics bring much to contribute to our nation’s life and to the life of our Catholic Church in America. Their values are formed by their Catholic religious culture.
More than 30 years ago, when 1 was in the seminary, we were told that 25%of American Catholics were of Hispanic origin.  Today it is probably closer to 50%, counting those who are baptized Catholic or who identify themselves as Catholics.

In the Diocese of Orlando, the U.S. Census Bureau tells us that there are more than 400,000 Hispanics living in the nine counties that comprise the Diocese. While the majority of these are U.S. citizens of Puerto Rican origin, they, together with immigrant Hispanics, represent a tremendous creative and talented constituency who deserve a place at the table of our civil society, as well as within our churches. 

Last year, the round up of 66 undocumented workers at a government construction site in downtown Orlando was another reminder that “America’s immigration system is…outdated—unsuited to the needs of our economy and to the values of our country.  We should not be content with laws that punish hardworking people who want only to provide for their families.” The quote belongs to President George W. Bush and was spoken to Congress during his State of the Union in 2005.  He, to his credit, repeated similar words in this year’s address—and in Tampa last month—although he doesn’t like the “a” word, the amnesty word.

The arrests of these “hardworking people who want only to provide for their families” did nothing to enhance our national security which was the pretext used by B.I.C.E. (the Bureau of Immigration and Control Enforcement) in arresting them. Nor for that matter does the vigilante “justice” of Minutemen and other civilian groups that have taken the enforcement of immigration laws into their own hands on our nation’s southwestern border or in the suburbs of Maryland.  

Spending so much of our scarce enforcement resources chasing brick layers, housekeepers, and waiters seeking a better life for their families should no longer be an acceptable application of our security resources in a post 9/11 world. There are, after all, real criminals, drug dealers and terrorists to apprehend.  

To fix the system, we must address both the future flow of immigrants into the United States as well as the undocumented workers who already live here.  The so-called “illegals” are so not because they wish to defy the law; but, because the law does not provide them with any channels to regularize their status in our country—which needs their labor:  as I said, they are not breaking the law, the law is breaking them.  If the parties in Congress put aside narrow partisan interests and truly work for the common good, we can achieve reform that protects the interests of all workers, both immigrant and U.S. born.  

Real reform should recognize that immigrants are already part of our communities and provide common-sense rules for workers and employers. Many immigrants work in essential but low-paying jobs that most Americans pass over. They care for our children and elderly, clean our office buildings and hotel rooms, harvest and serve our food, and labor on construction sites and other projects in our communities. These immigrant workers should be able to seek a decent wage, health care, and respect on the job from employers who may freely hire them without having to worry about legal sanctions.  

The U.S. Catholic bishops were among the several religious, labor, business and immigrant advocacy organizations excited to hear that President Bush had an immigration reform plan, first unveiled in January 2004. At that time we congratulated him for restarting the dialogue on immigration reform.

Yesterday, Cardinal McCarrick in Washington joined with an interfaith group of religious leaders calling again for a comprehensive immigration reform. And Congress will hopefully turn its attention to immigration reform this month. There is a sane proposal out there:  the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Control Act (S. 1033, HR 2330) proposed last year by Senators McCain and Kennedy. The Senate Judiciary Committee is supposed to take it up today.
  
The re-emergence of “nativist” anti-immigrant sentiment that evokes the xenophobia of the 19th century “Know-Nothings” should not be allowed to derail the broad based coalition for substantive immigration reform that is emerging among labor, business and faith-based organizations.

It is time to acknowledge those who come to our nation, work hard, and contribute to the economic, cultural, and social fabric of our country, just as many of our own grandparents and great-grandparents did.

Yet, those who survive the gauntlet of a dangerous border crossing find work in short order. Our economy needs their man power: the Labor Department projects that, by the year 2008, there will be six million more low-skilled jobs available than Americans able to fill them. At the same time, these workers contribute billions to the tax and Social Security systems. 

We need immigration reform legislation with three major components, akin to a three-legged stool. The administration plan addresses only one leg—employment of temporary workers— which is insufficient to support the weight on the system.  

First, any new proposal should feature means for undocumented long-term residents to access permanent residency. Legalization does not necessarily mean amnesty. It can be conditioned on any number of criteria including, for example, “sweat equity” which the undocumented have already accrued through their work in the U.S. Such a legal remedy would both stabilize immigrant families and the labor force. Legalization does not have to me a free pass—those in the country “out of status” could be asked to pay a fine before they are eligible to regularize their status.

Second, it should reform the employment-based legal immigration system in a way that increases legal avenues to work while protecting the rights of both foreign-born and U.S. workers. This would permit future flows of workers to enter safely and legally and reduce deaths at the border.  

Third, the plan should shorten waiting times under the family reunification system. Too often, our current system separates husbands from wives and parents from children, a morally unacceptable outcome in a nation built upon the strength of the family.  Anti-immigrant polemicists ignore the human tragedy and familial dislocation enabled by the status quo, while discounting the invaluable contributions immigrants make to our nation.  

Americans are, as a whole, fair minded people. We cannot continue to accept the benefits of undocumented laborers but be unwilling to extend to them the protection of the law. I repeat the undocumented are not “breaking” the law as much as they are being “broken” by the law. After our country’s unhappy experience with Jim Crow “laws” that resulted in the creation of a large black underclass, we should not repeat the same mistake in tolerating the creation of a large immigrant underclass by not affording legal remedies that would afford them the protection of law and the opportunity for upward mobility.  

We applaud President Bush for recognizing how the present immigration regime hurts both Americans and undocumented immigrants in America. The Congress should work with President Bush to enact a comprehensive solution to our immigration crisis. Only such a “three-legged” comprehensive approach will protect human rights and prepare our nation for the challenges of the future.  Any immigration reform proposal must be evaluated from that context, within that light.

The Bishops of the United States and Mexico in their pastoral statement of January 2003, Strangers No Longer, develop some important principles in the hope of offering to legislators a means of elaborating a reform of our broken immigration system that will serve the human person.  

Persons have the right to find opportunities in their homeland. Migration should be driven by choice and not necessity. Forced migrations due to conflict or poverty go against human dignity.

Persons have the right to migrate to support themselves and their families. In other words, as human beings, everyone should enjoy the conditions worthy of human life. When these conditions are not found in one’s homeland, one has the right to seek those conditions elsewhere.

Sovereign states have the right to control borders. This is a function of sovereignty in the service of the common good. But obligations to solidarity trump rights of sovereignty.  Refugees and asylum seekers should be afforded protection. Those fleeing persecution have a right to seek safe haven and we have a moral obligation to grant safe haven if even temporarily. This principle is now being violated at this time by our nation’s summary repatriation of Haitian “boat people” feeling the conflict in their native land.  

Human dignity and human rights of the documented should be respected. Again the lack of legal documents does not abrogate the human dignity and rights of an immigrant. While much is made of their “law breaking”, it would be more accurate to say that rather the “law is breaking” them.

Our laws need to be fixed—they need to be fixed to insure a just and a complete integration of the immigrant into our society.  Immigrants can integrate fully into our national life when legal remedies provide for their permanent status, a path to future citizenship, and the protection of their labor rights. This is the position of strength that can successfully integrate the newcomer to his benefit and to the benefit of the entire nation.