Diocesan task force to promote U.S. bishops’ vision of immigration reform

By J.D. Long-García
The Catholic Sun

Whether or not comprehensive immigration reform is passed into law this summer, the fervent debate over the issue is putting up a wall between the country and the Church.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, recognizing both the needs of Arizona’s citizens and of incoming migrants, established a 12-person task force to promote comprehensive immigration reform in the Phoenix Diocese.

The task force, a local manifestation of the U.S. bishops’ Justice for Immigrants campaign, met for the first time May 28. The task force shares the national campaign’s primary objectives:

-- Educate the public about Church teaching on migration and immigrants;

-- Create will for positive immigration reform;

-- Enact legislative and administrative reforms based on the principles articulated by the bishops; and

-- Organize Catholic networks to help qualified immigrants receive benefits after reform.

“Educating our people about Catholic teaching is always a great challenge. It is made more difficult when there are complex issues involved and when some of the popular rhetoric has polarized and made it harder to listen,” Bishop Olmsted said.

“At the same time, perhaps it is a teachable moment, a time to remind our people of the deep Christian tradition of welcoming strangers, and of the dignity of every person, even those without citizenship or documentation,” he added.

The task force — which will function as an advisory committee — meets quarterly and helps the bishop promote immigration reform.

Bishop Olmsted said helping qualified immigrants receive benefits might be the greatest challenge, “especially if comprehensive legislation gets passed.”

“Even if it is not passed, there are many qualified immigrants who wait for years to have their cases processed,” he said. “The Church, for many years, had been a primary player in assisting immigrants and refugees with resettlement and citizenship. We want and need to continue that tradition.”

Jose Robles, the director of Hispanic ministry at the diocese and a committee member, said his office will serve as a resource center.

“We’re approaching this realizing that we don’t know when immigration reform will occur,” he said. Robles emphasized the need to educate Catholics about the Church position on immigration reform, Catholic social teaching and human dignity.

“We don’t like illegal immigration. We have to secure the border,” he said. “But this immigration reform must be comprehensive.”

Robles suggested any reform include a legal mechanism that lets law-abiding immigrants stay in the country.

Mike Phelan, the director of the diocesan Marriage and Respect Life office, will serve as the contact person for the task force. He said the Church can act as an advisory committee to government, but it does not make any decisions.

“It’s not a political agency,” he said. “At the same time, the Church teaches that there is a deep, fundamental right for the family to provide for itself. People have a right to life.”

Phelan said that it’s important for immigrants to integrate into the culture, come to have the country’s best interest at heart and “feel a kinship with the people they are not living with.”

“As United States Catholics, we can’t think of this simply in terms of rights and interests,” he said. “There’s a certain responsibility that comes with being a wealthy country, but that doesn’t mean we sell the farm.”

In “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope,” U.S. and Mexican bishops recognized the right of sovereign nations to control their borders, but emphasized that the human dignity of undocumented immigrants be respected.

“We urge both the U.S. and Mexican enforcement authorities to abandon the type of strategies that give rise to smuggling operations and migrant deaths. Care should be taken not to push migrants to routes in which their lives may be in danger,” the bishops wrote.

“We also urge more concerted efforts to root out smuggling enterprises at their source using a wide range of intelligence and investigative tactics,” the bishops stated.

More recently, the bishops of Arizona released “You Welcomed Me,” a pastoral letter on migration. In that letter, the bishops called Catholics to make parishes more welcoming, to educate themselves about the issues and to support efforts to reduce poverty in Latin America.

“Let us pray for a just and peaceful solution to the suffering on our border, especially for the migrants who have died and their families, for our lawmakers, for the safety of those charged with enforcing our immigration laws,” the Arizona bishops wrote, “and for the grace to heal our communities and repair our broken immigration system.”