Father Eugene Hemrick
“The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom; whatever else you get, get understanding” (Prv. 4:7).
The Book of Proverbs offers counsel for solving the complexities of immigration.
To understand the important role immigration fulfills is to understand God’s use of it. In the early pages of Genesis, God tells Abraham to take his possessions and migrate to the land of Canaan from Haran (Gn. 12:1-6).
Like Abraham, so too do Moses, the Hebrews and numerous biblical figures become immigrants. In these cases, immigration is God’s means for emancipation, elevating people’s lives and spreading the word of God.
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Immigration represents hope of a new and enhanced life. Understood in this light, it promotes one of the three theological virtues that contains the grace needed to withstand despair and despondency: hope. It fortifies the human spirit by enabling people to look forward to the promise of new horizons.
The word “civil” contains the idea of home. A home-like spirit is imperative for immigration to succeed. It is the welcoming spirit that Bernini’s colonnades inspire at St. Peter’s in Rome: open arms extending to everyone as brothers and sisters in a spirit of solidarity.
Some people fear immigrants will introduce bad elements into their culture. The U.S. bishops see them differently: Immigrants are a rich gift enhancing the life of the church and nation. Immigrants amplify life’s largesse.
When people wall off themselves to keep out undesirables, fear and paranoia are reinforced. Worst of all, walls represent turning one’s back away from others instead of turning toward ways of creating conversion, reconciliation and fraternity.
Our God-given responsibility is to be God’s co-creator, working to improve and develop humanity. When we translate this responsibility, it means defending the dignity of immigrants who are fleeing undignified, degrading situations.
Understanding prompts us to reflect on what has just been discussed here and to see the necessity of a moral compass when responding to immigration.
Without God’s wisdom, treating immigration justly will falter. Without reverence for the hope it creates, despair will prevail. Without a spirit of reconciliation, redemption and solidarity, objections, unfounded doubts and naysaying will continue to hinder progress.
Without the law of God, laws concerning immigration have little to no possibility of succeeding.
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Many persons rightfully argue that we should welcome immigrants because it is the Christian, human or charitable thing to do. In fact, Christians call it a corporal work of mercy. But this position misses an essential point: It is our responsibility in justice to support and accept them. Please let me explain.
Many immigrants come to the U.S. from Mexico or Central America. They give up their whole way of life and leave their families, homes and neighbors because conditions there are impossible due to policies beyond their control. For example, for years poor Mexican families eked out a living on small family farms. They lived off of the nourishment they enjoyed from the corn they grew while selling their surplus on the open Mexican market so they could have some money to buy other essentials.
In 1994, the U.S., Mexican and Canadian government signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which, basically, created open borders between these three countries. As a result, the huge, corporate corn-producers in the U.S. exported their grain to Mexico tariff free. This drove down the price of corn in Mexico. Furthermore, these U.S. producers benefit from U.S. government farm-subsidies which allow U.S. producers to sell their corn in Mexico at an even lower price and still reap profit.
Thus, Mexican subsistence farmers were unable to compete in their local markets and lost their ability to sell their surplus corn at a fair price. Many fled to their cities to seek work to little or no avail. Finally, in desperation, they made the long, arduous and very dangerous journey to the U.S. seeking a better way of life.
Another example may be found in the migration from Central America to the U.S. of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors. The U.S. response, under Obama it might be noted, was to put them in prisons and deport them. But why did they come here? Many are fleeing the highly armed gangs which formed following the end of the U.S. backed “dirty wars” of the 1970-90s. During that period, the U.S. supported ruthless dictators in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, flooded those countries with U.S. weapons, and destroyed society in general. The resulting chaos created a vacuum which is now filled by large, violent gangs who are well-armed with those very same U.S. weapons. Many young persons in those countries now flee these conditions and come to the U.S.
Escaping these unsafe and unlivable conditions as well as seeking a better way of life are often referred to as the “push–pull” causes of immigration. Rather than disparage these documented or undocumented refugees, our sisters and brothers, it’s time we acknowledge the responsibility of the U.S. and other western powers for their plight, welcome them to our country and work to change the policies that drive them here in the first place.
Welcoming the immigrant is both an act of charity and justice.
Or so it seems to me.
All of the concern about being compassionate towards the immigrant in your midst does not exist if a physical wall prevents people from immigrating.
A physical wall prevents “illegal” immigrants from coming into our country. We still welcome legal immigrants with open arms.
There seems to be a big misunderstanding about immigration. People are not against it, but rather, against illegal immigration. Numerous articles keep appearing implying that conservatives are not in favor of immigrants when it’s anything but. Please differentiate between legal and illegal immigration in future articles
Whoever is against illegal immigration needs to learn that since the amnesty of 1985 and later the changes made to the Immigration Code in 1996, both basically forced people to stay illegally or stay separated from immediate family even for decades. I can attest to that because I petitioned for my sister since 1997 and it was until last year that her visa was approved. European and a few other countries don’t have to wait so long but if your family member happens to be from Latin America, China, India, the Philippines and a few other countries, the wait destroys relationships and family ties. My siblings don’t know me anymore; they love me but they see me as a stranger, just like most people here see me as a stranger. Unless Congress updates and improves the current legal process to immigrate, we shall not judge anyone for trying to keep ties with their loved ones, instead help us demand from congress to create viable legal ways for people to migrate without making it so unbelievably difficult and expensive!