Immigrants 'R' Us, bishop says

An enforcement-only approach to immigration does not work and is unjust, according to Bishop John C. Wester of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. Instead, the law should be reformed so that presently illegal immigrants have a path to citizenship, he said.

Bishop Wester spoke Sunday at the St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center, 170 S. University, giving the Catholic center's annual Aquinas Lecture. He cited the gospel mandate to "welcome the stranger" and quoted from positions taken by the U.S. Catholic bishops on reaching out to immigrants.

"Jesus himself was a refugee who fled the terror of Herod" in the family's flight to Egypt, he said. During his ministry on Earth, Jesus was an itinerant preacher. Today, when Catholics see needy immigrants, they see the face of Christ, he added.

The Catholic Church could say of itself, "Immigrants 'R' Us," Bishop Wester said.

Half of Earth's residents are in poverty, he said. On this continent, impoverished people live in the United States, Mexico and Latin America. Meanwhile, America is much wealthier than the other countries, drawing migrants who are trying to survive and care for their families.

"The overwhelming majority of migrants simply want to work, and they work hard," he added. They make important contributions to the U.S. economy, paying taxes and producing goods.

Undocumented immigrants pay $700 million a year in Social Security tax and do not get Social Security returns, he said. They pay about $3 billion in income tax.

"They contribute more than they consume," he said. Bishop Wester said he agrees with a statement in a recent letter to the editor in the Salt Lake Tribune: Immigrants "come here with little, work for little, and ask for little."

In 1998, an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants were in the United States. Today, after expenditure of billions of dollars in enforcement, the total is about 12 million. "It is clear that an enforcement only system does not work," Bishop Wester said.

At the same time, federal law allows only 5,000 non-skilled workers from Mexico to legally migrate to the United States each year. In recent years, 3,000 migrants have died in the deserts trying to enter the country illegally, he said.

"While we post a no-trespassing sign at the border, we erect a help-wanted sign at the workplace," Bishop Wester added. This creates what seems a permanent under-class of illegal workers who can be exploited. He said American citizens can't really want such an unfair system.

"The political season has begun," and some politicians are using the illegal immigration discussion for personal gain, he charged. In some of these attacks, he thinks there is racism and xenophobia.