Posted on January 11, 2010

Catholic Bishops Launch New Push for Immigration Reform, Pathway to Citizenship

Christopher Neefus, Cybercast News Service, January 8, 2010

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will push to get immigration-reform legislation enacted in 2010. The group has voiced support for one Democrat-sponsored bill that grants a pathway to citizenship for people who came to this country illegally.

In a conference call Wednesday with reporters, Salt Lake City Bishop John C. Wester said, “It is our view, and that of others, that the American public, including the Catholic and other faith communities, want a humane and comprehensive solution to the problems which beset our immigration system, and they want Congress to address this issue.”

Wester, who chairs the USCCB Committee on Migration, said the church will prod lawmakers take action on the issue, beginning with a postcard campaign to members of Congress and prayer vigils across the country.

On Dec. 23, the Catholic bishops also wrote a letter of support to Rep. Luiz Gutierrez (D-Ill.) for a bill he co-sponsored–the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (H.R. 4321). The bishops called the bill “an important first step in the legislative process.”

The nearly-700-page bill includes an “earned legalization” program, more often referred to as a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. It would allow about 100,000 unemployed immigrants into the country each year in an attempt to reduce the backlog of visa applications. It also would exempt immediate relatives from the annual cap on visas. Gutierrez said immigrants have born the brunt of blame for various domestic problems, especially unemployment, and he quoted the Bible to describe their plight.

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Despite the religious bent to the latest immigration-reform push, a recent poll from Zogby International shows that Catholics are largely out of step with the views of their leaders on the issue. Conducted in the last two weeks of November 2009 and released in December, the Zogby poll shows that Catholics believe there are too many illegal immigrants in the United States and oppose a pathway to citizenship.

Zogby asked: “Which approach do you prefer to deal with illegal immigrants in this country? Statement A: Enforcing the law and causing them to return home over time. Statement B: Granting legal status and a pathway to citizenship to most illegal immigrants.”

A majority–64 percent–of Catholic respondents preferred statement A, compared with the 24 percent who chose statement B.

In the same poll, Catholics were asked whether the 38 million legal and illegal immigrants and the 1.5 million more entering the U.S. were “too high, too low, or just right?” Sixty-nine percent said too high, while just 4 percent said too low, and 14 percent said just right.

Kevin Appleby, director of migration and refugee policy at USCCB, confirmed that the bishops thought the Gutierrez bill was a “good blueprint”–and they took issue with Zogby’s methodology.

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The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a non-partisan policy group, contends that the Gutierrez bill is out of touch with prevailing public sentiment:

Asked where the bill in question fell on the political spectrum, CIS Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan said, “I don’t think it even falls on the spectrum of bills that Americans would consider to be reasonable immigration reform.

“It is a massive expansion of immigration–an amnesty for just about everyone, a decimation of immigration law enforcement, and creation of unnecessary temporary worker programs–um–did I miss anything?

“The reality is that this is not something that most Americans would support.”

Vaughan said the disparity was no surprise. “Some other studies in the past have shown that the leadership of not just the Catholic church but all the other mainstream religious groups hold very different views on immigration from those in the pews.” {snip}

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“For the bishops and the leaders, they tend to have a lot of empathy for illegal immigrants here and people who want to come in the future,” Camarota [CIS Director of Research Stephen Camarota] said. “That’s where their humanitarian concerns are. The concerns of the people in the pews are much more in their community–fellow Americans who face the job competition, who have to send their kids to overcrowded schools and so-forth.

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