Illegal Immigration and the Golden Rule

We need not delay long over whether separating children from their parents, and placing them in foster care, when the family crosses the U.S. border illegally is in keeping with Catholic teaching. It is a stench in the nostrils of the Lord. This is knowledge that ought to be instinctive to everyone who strives to be a follower of Christ.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “popes and bishops’ conferences have synthesized the Catholic theological tradition to articulate three basic principles on immigration.” [1] The first is that people “have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families.” That this is properly called a right becomes obvious when we consider what measure we would take to sustain the lives of our families, and the mandate of Jesus that we treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated. It is to be noted that he didn’t place any qualifications on that rule based on what kind of people those others are, or where they come from. The first principle, then, simply reminds us that immigrants have the right to be treated as human beings, as people who are proper subjects of the Golden Rule.

The second principle is that a “country has the right to regulate its borders and to control immigration.” Of course it does. No “country has the duty to receive so many immigrants that its social and economic life are jeopardized.”

This “second principle of Catholic social teaching may seem to negate the first principle. However, principles one and two must be understood in the context of principle three,” which is: a “country must regulate its borders with justice and mercy.” That wouldn’t include separating children from their parents. Yes, we all know that when people enter the country without permission they are breaking the law. But that doesn’t excuse any treatment the worst angels of our nature want to impose on them. As the U.S. bishops put it,

“Undocumented immigrants present a special concern. Often their presence is considered criminal since they arrive without legal permission. Under the harshest view, undocumented people may be regarded as undeserving of rights or services. This is not the view of Catholic social teaching. The Catholic Church teaches that every person has basic human rights and is entitled to have basic human needs met—food, shelter, clothing, education, and health care. Undocumented persons are particularly vulnerable to exploitation by employers, and they are not able to complain because of the fear of discovery and deportation. Current immigration policy that criminalizes the mere attempt to immigrate and imprisons immigrants who have committed no crime or who have already served a just sentence for a crime is immoral. In the Bible, God promises that our judgment will be based on our treatment of the most vulnerable. Before God we cannot excuse inhumane treatment of certain persons by claiming that their lack of legal status deprives them of rights given by the Creator.”

Earlier this month, the Trump administration, in the person of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, announced that people crossing the border with their children illegally would be prosecuted, and separated from their children. “If you don’t like that,” Mr. Sessions said, “then don’t smuggle children over our border.” [2] But policies involving the separation of children from their parents actually go back to the George W. Bush administration, and continued through the presidency of Barack Obama. [3] What’s different now is the announced zero-tolerance policy. Evil is assuredly non-partisan. Hopefully, repentance can be non-partisan as well.

The icon of St. Joseph the Worker is by Daniel Nichols.

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