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EXODUS
J.D. Long-García/CATHOLIC SUN
Feliciano Arreola, who lost his job after a recent employer sanctions law took effect, might move his family out of state.
Are Arizona’s immigration laws having an effect on churchgoers?
By J.D. Long-García, The Catholic Sun
Feb. 19, 2008
After seeing a recent television news program, 9-year-old Jésus Arreola asked his mother if he and his family were really “delinquents.”
“I told him that we might be delinquents according to the law of man, but not according to the law of God,” his mother, Adela, said. “We are all children of God.”
The Arreolas, a family of five illegal immigrants, are not sure if they’ll move to another state, move back to Mexico or stay in Arizona. Feliciano, the father of the family and a carpenter by trade, said he lost his construction job last month due in part to a recent law that punishes employers for hiring illegal immigrants.
“If there’s no work, then we have to move,” Feliciano said. “Others have already moved to another state because you can’t get work here.”
It’s as simple as that, he said.
A weak economy, a growing anti-immigrant sentiment and tougher immigration laws are making it difficult for illegal immigrants like Feliciano to stay in Arizona.
“I hear lots of concern from our people,” said Carmelite Father Peter Liuzzi, the Arreolas’ pastor at St. Agnes Parish. “They’re worried about paying their rent. They’re worried about losing their jobs.”
Yet, he said, his immigrant parishioners are sticking around — at least for now.
“They all have Ph.D.s in survival. That’s why there hasn’t been a mass exodus,” Fr. Liuzzi said. “They’re used to making sacrifices.”
Fr. Patrick Mowrer, pastor of San Francisco de Asís Parish in Flagstaff, said many immigrants in his community are also sticking around.
“The reality is that some people have left. That’s true,” he said. “But most people are staying strong.”
Gena McGowan, principal of St. Matthew School, said they haven’t had a significant drop in enrollment. Still, she noted some families were thinking about leaving by the end of the school year.
“Most are talking about moving to California or back East,” she said. “I have also heard that there are heads of families that have already left to find work in ‘safer’ states.”
Fr. David Sanfilippo, pastor of St. Catherine of Sienna Parish and vicar general of the diocese, said the parish school has documented 17 families leaving the state before Christmas.
Since January, 25 more families have returned to Mexico or relocated to another state “in fear of losing their jobs, homes and other possessions,” Fr. Sanfilippo said.
Yet, he said, Mass attendance at the Spanish Mass has not declined.
“With increased anxiety also comes increased reliance upon God in the Hispanic community,” Fr. Sanfillipo said. “The increased number of new people at Mass may be masking the fact that some are also choosing to leave Arizona due to growing anti-immigrant sentiment.”
While anti-immigrant legislation plays a part, the weak economy could have more to do with the immigrants’ flight, said Ron Johnson, executive director of the Arizona Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the local Catholic Church.
“It’s impossible to tell exactly why people are leaving,” he said. “When you see the economy pick back up, that’s when you’ll be able to tell.”
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Arizona is the first state to enact a law that penalizes businesses for knowingly hiring unauthorized immigrants.
Yet that law — the Legal Arizona Workers Act, which took effect Jan. 1 — is only one of a list of anti-immigrant laws being circulated in the Arizona Legislature, Johnson said.
He also mentioned a debate about banning the use of the matricula consular, the Mexican identification card. Some would like to ban the Mexican card as a valid form of identification, Johnson said.
Some legislators are also discussing a law that would make it illegal for a landlord to rent to an illegal immigrant, he added.
This would all be bad legislation, according to Fr. Liuzzi.
“Laws need to respect the higher, natural law of the right to immigrate,” he said. “That’s Catholic teaching.”
Pope John XXIII, in his encyclical Pacem in Terris, addressed that right to immigrate.
“Every human being has the right to the freedom of movement and of residence within the confines of their country; and, when there are just reasons for it, the right to emigrate and take up residence elsewhere,” the pope wrote in 1963.
In 2003, the U.S. bishops reaffirmed those rights, adding that immigrants have to support themselves and their families.
While noting that sovereign nations have the right to control their borders, the bishops particularly underscored the human dignity of illegal immigrants, who “should not be blamed for the social ills of a nation.”
“We should be as clear in this teaching as we are on abortion,” Fr. Liuzzi said. “In an area where so many of our people are Hispanic, we need to make that teaching known.”
Holy Cross Father John Herman, pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in Goodyear, makes that teaching known at his community.
“It’s a complex issue, but it’s an issue of faith,” he said. “The Church calls us to respond according to the Gospel message.”
Fr. Herman noted a passage from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus identifies Himself with the immigrant: “I was a stranger and you welcomed Me.”
While fewer turned out for Ash Wednesday services, Fr. Herman said immigrants are still turning up at the Spanish Masses.
“Times are tough and work is tight and they’re not sure what they’re going to do,” he said. “In times of crisis, people turn to God.”
Incarnate Word Father Humberto Villa is also noticing more people seeking divine intervention at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in downtown Phoenix.
“This last Sunday, the St. Jude statue was surrounded by candles,” he said, noting his parishioners are asking the patron saint of impossible causes to intercede on their behalf.
With their uncertain future, the Arreolas are also turning to prayer. Feliciano, who’s working small jobs here and there in the interim, compared the immigrants to the people of Israel in exile.
“God said there would be peace after the tempest,” he said. “We try to maintain our faith in God and let Him decide our fate.”
His wife said the family makes sure to pray for those who support anti-immigrant legislation as well as for other immigrants.
“There are people who suffer a lot more than we do. It’s always important, in these cases, to ask God for help,” Adela said. “The light of the Lord is always our hope.”
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