Immigrant Rights

Guest Commentary by Denise Kollias, St. Isadore Parish

 

 

Last week we were in San Francisco visiting my son. One morning, I got up early, made some coffee and opened the newspaper. When I finished my coffee, I was about to put the paper down when a headline caught my eye: “New Immigration Bill Prompts Church Opposition”. My emotions ran the gamut as I read the article. I felt disbelief, sadness, anger and apprehension. Before their December recess, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would harm immigrants and their families, threaten the rights of the Church to fulfill its mission and fail in its intent to fix the immigration system. Among the provisions if this bill, H.R. 4437, becomes law:

 

Anyone suspected of being undocumented could be deported without a hearing. Local law enforcement officers would be given the authority to detain and deport.

 

Changes in the asylum provisions could hurt those fleeing from persecution

 

Undocumented immigrants would become felons and lose the ability to ever become citizens

 

More prisons would be built to accommodate the provisions

 

As troubling as these provisions are, the stipulation that I found most shocking was the one that would subject anyone who assisted illegal immigrants to prison and seizure of assets. Offenders would include members of churches and humanitarian groups that offer basic needs and life-sustaining assistance to people without documents. The provisions in section 202 would place parish, diocesan, and social service program staff at risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their job; for fulfilling the command to love, which is so clearly stated in Scripture. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells a Jewish scholar of the law that the way to inherit eternal life is to love. We are to love God with everything that we’ve got and love our neighbor as ourselves. To explain just who our neighbor is, Jesus follows with the wonderful parable of the Good Samaritan. The man laying half dead at the side of the road is ignored by a priest and a Levite, those expected to model charity. Only the Samaritan, the one considered an enemy of the Jews, cared for the poor man. Jesus tells us that this is the person that we are to imitate. When we see someone in need of help, we are to love as God loves, without conditions.

 

This has been our model at St. Isidore. We offer God’s love through the sacraments, pastoral care and practical assistance. Counseling services, health care referral and English as a Second Language classes are all available here. To withhold these things to someone who could not show us credentials would make us as bad as the priest and Levite of the parable who Jesus condemned. To follow Christ is to answer to a Higher Authority and to live in love even if it means going to prison. If this bill becomes a law, it could make prison and confiscation of our assets a reality.

 

There is still time to thwart this interference of the state with the mission of the Church. The House passed the bill by a simple majority, so it automatically went to the Senate. The Senate will reconvene on January 18th and will consider the bill. We can join our Bishops in protesting this bill and calling for fair and charitable immigration reform. To find out more about this bill you can go to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website at www.usccb.org/com/archives/2005/05-281.shtml. The addresses of our Senators are:

Senator Richard Durbin Senator Barack Obama

332 Dirksen Senate Building 713 Hart Senate Building

Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510

 

I would never have believed that a bill like this could pass. I pray that it does not get through the Senate to become law. We need to pray and to protest never forgetting, to paraphrase James 1:27, true religion that honors God cares for the defenseless and oppressed.