By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced the launch of a nationwide campaign to push for the enactment of immigration reform legislation in 2010.
“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,” said Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration.
The bishops lay out their recommendations for reforming immigration law in a landmark pastoral letter issued in 2003 by the Catholic bishops of Mexico and the United States, entitled “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope.”
In this letter, the bishops call for international cooperation on trade, economic aid and debt relief that will create conditions in which people will not have to leave their homelands in order to find work.
For those who are forced migrate, however, the bishops call for a reduction in the backlog of visa requests for family members who want to join them in the U.S., thus eliminating the sometimes 15 year wait before families can reunite.
The bishops also want a reformed temporary worker program that will create a path to permanent residency, provide labor protections, and job portability for those workers who wish to change employers.
For those in this country without proper immigration documentation, and who can demonstrate good moral character, they are calling for new opportunities for legalization.
The bishops are also calling improvements in due process that will protect immigrants from being subjected to lengthy detentions without charges, secret hearings, and ethnic profiling.
The new nationwide campaign to push for these reforms will consist of:
• The launch of a nationwide postcard campaign under the Justice for Immigrants campaign, with 1.5 million postcards already ordered;
• The launch of two Web sites, a new Justice for Immigrants Web site with tools for parishes (www.justiceforimmigrants.org), and the National Migration Week Web site, which provides other resources (www.usccb.org/mrs/nmw/index.shtml); and
• A nationwide action alert asking for Congress to enact immigration reform as soon as possible.
Bishop Wester promised that the Church will work to make sure that legislators act on this issue in the near future.
“We remain committed to moving immigration reform as soon as possible,” he said. “We hope to make sure that our federal legislators are committed to that goal as well.”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
