I have always seen the debate over health care reform to be a warmup act for the ugliness that will occur when immigration reform is considered by Congress.
Which is why I found it encouraging to learn recently of how elements of the Catholic church in this country are already taking steps to try to encourage people to think of the issue rationally – instead of letting the xenophobes dominate their thought process.
THE U.S. CONFERENCE of Catholic Bishops is preparing for a “postcard campaign” in which Catholics will be urged to send their elected representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives some sort of message letting them know they should not vote knee-jerk against immigration reform.
It is with that campaign in mind that some groups are planning forums in coming weeks to educate people about the issue, in hopes they will take the postcard campaign seriously.
There also will be mentions of the campaign in the fact that the church is considering next week (the first full week of 2010) to be National Migration Week, during which they will attempt to portray the issue of immigration reform as one of mere fairness to all mankind.
Specifically, they’re going to be touting the need for a broad-based legalization process for all people who want to live in the United States, without regard to their nationality. It also will be portrayed as a way of permitting families to remain together or to be reunified (whichever is the case).
OF COURSE, TO make a concession to some of the more conservative elements, they’re also throwing in talk of a guest-worker program by which people could come from other countries for a few years, work in the U.S., and not have to go through the immigration process, if they intend to return “home” some day.
The conservatives like that because they think it encourages newcomers to think of the day they will leave, rather than consider themselves a part of the United States. But if it means that we can start thinking of the people who are already here as filling a legitimate niche (rather than being criminal by their very existence, as the nativists like to think), then perhaps it is a part of the overall solution.
If it sounds like I think there are parts of the Catholic rhetoric that we’re going to hear in coming months are good while others are not so good, you’d be correct.
But then again, that was the attitude the Catholic church itself took toward the health care debate, where it was argued that the basic concept of reforming the way health care was paid for to make it more accessible to all was a good concept totally in line with the church’s teachings.
BUT THE CATHOLIC church also encouraged those political people who were bent on including restrictions that would limit a woman’s ability to abort a pregnancy. I can recall Cardinal Francis George of the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese saying that “no one” would be totally pleased with the church’s position, even though it was meant to protect the access of health care to protect life.
If anything, it meant that Catholic church officials were trying to put the actual issue of health care access over the partisan political issues of winning future elections based off what actions were taken now.
It sounds like they’re also trying to do the same with immigration reform.
For this is an issue that too many people want to avoid because of its future electoral ramifications. They want to believe the rhetoric that comes from the nativists that doing anything that can be perceived as favoring “the foreigners” will bite them back at the polling place on Election Day.
OF COURSE, THAT attitude ignores the fact that the Latino portion of the electorate is growing in size and influence and has the potential to bite back at political people who come off as too xenophobic.
It’s not that many of us are directly affected. But we do realize that many of the people who get so worked up about this issue can’t tell the difference between an immigrant and an alien, or a Latino from someone who is from Latin America.
So there is the degree to which we realize that the immigrant issue is a reflection upon us as well, and we will be inclined to vote against those political people whose actions are interpreted as slurs upon us.
It also is encouraging to learn that the Catholic church in this country is trying to see this issue as one beyond politics. There is a degree to which the church can gain some respect from people because of this very attitude.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Catholic Diocese for Rochester, N.Y., could be typical of activity taking place among (http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=78&articleid=111907) Catholics across the United States when it comes to the immigration reform issue.
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