{"id":14166,"date":"2019-07-06T14:06:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-06T20:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=14166"},"modified":"2019-07-06T14:06:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T20:06:34","slug":"is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not going to dig into the specific comments any of the authors made, not least because that requires acquainting myself with the full back-and-forth rather than the single article I\u2019ve seen, but also because I don\u2019t like the business of taking apart a single author without knowing how influential the article is (and, yes, Patheos discontinued \u201cshare\u201d counts due to technical issues, so I can\u2019t tell how widely read another author or article is).<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s back up:<\/p>\n

Is illegal immigration \u2014 including a host of actions, depending on the circumstances, from illegal border crossing to forged identification (which can vary from simply falsified ID to identity documents stolen from another person or used with their knowledge) to working under the table to pickpocketing, the destruction of property that comes with illegal squatting, and so on, a sin?\u00a0 I presume it is without dispute that a person immigrating because his life is threatened in his home country commits no sin<\/em>, so long as he does not use that immediate threat of harm to justify criminal actions that are not themselves necessary to preserve his life.\u00a0 And I presume we can define \u201clife threatened\u201d broadly to include both the sort of desperate poverty, famine, etc., that was the cause of the Irish immigration to the US during the Potato Famine, as well as persecution due to religion or ethnic group.\u00a0 (Is there a surefire natural right to immigrate regardless of a host country\u2019s laws, in the case where you\u2019re simply not allowed to practice your religion openly?\u00a0 Probably not.)<\/p>\n

But what of a person who has the ability to provide for his material needs (and his family\u2019s) in his home country but simply wants to improve his standard of living \u2014 e.g., the Africans coming to Europe with dreams of streets paved with gold (and who stayed in The Jungle in Calais scheming to cross to the U.K. for better social welfare benefits) or families leaving refugee camps in Turkey to cross to Greece back a couple years ago?\u00a0 One guesses that most people, even those who strongly support aid for refugees and a generous policy on asylum, would acknowledge that it\u2019s wrong to violate a country\u2019s laws merely for the desire of personal gain.<\/p>\n

Of course, the trouble is setting the bounds.\u00a0 Is it enough to justify illegal immigration that the crime rate in your home country is high?\u00a0 That poverty is so deep that you\u2019ll worry about providing for your family even though in reality no one is actually going to starve to death?<\/p>\n

Some de facto<\/em> open borders advocates, even, let\u2019s face it, some Catholics (yes, Cardinal Cupich, and I blogged about it at some point though I can\u2019t find the link now \u2014 though I don\u2019t know about the Pope himself), have pretty much said that even in the circumstance in which what you\u2019re up to is simply seeking a comparatively better<\/em> life for your family, regardless of the particulars of the material or safety conditions of your home country, that illegal immigration is A-OK.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry, but I just don\u2019t believe that this is in accordance with Catholic doctrine.\u00a0 Your mileage may vary, I guess, but here\u2019s the text of the catechism (as cited by the USCCB<\/a>):<\/p>\n

The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner<\/em> in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Likewise, that same link quotes a bishops\u2019 letter from 2003:<\/p>\n

[w]hen persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, note that the official \u201cparty line\u201d is about survival, not mere improvement in standards of living.<\/p>\n

And this particular webpage advocates for a specific set of policy proposals that the bishops believe that the United States government ought to undertake.\u00a0 Which is all fine, I guess \u2014 everyone\u2019s got their ideas and proposals, and sure, the bishops can present theirs, though, again, note that they call for legalization programs, widened access to guest worker programs and increased visas for family reunification, on the basis that (an implied) all illegal immigrants have come here for the fundamental goal of ensuring their families\u2019 survival due to life-threatening poverty at home, which simply seems to be a misstatement of fact.<\/p>\n

But if we move from a set of best-practice, ideal policy preferences to a Sin List, that is, to decreeing what set of policies an American Catholic must support in order to not fall into sin, well, here there be dragons.\u00a0 Heck, virtually no bishops are willing to even state that providing political support for abortion is wrong \u2014 an act regarding which there is nothing open for interpretation or individual interpretation, as with the question of how much of a threat to life is sufficient to justify the law-violation of illegal immigration.\u00a0 How can one declare definitely that is it a Sin of Omission to fail to support some specific political policy with respect to immigration?\u00a0 How can one define a specific number of immigrants who must be admitted to the United States to meet the \u201cstranger-welcoming\u201d requirement?<\/p>\n

But wait.<\/p>\n

What about the Children In Cages?<\/p>\n

Does the fact that there has been such a massive increase in the number of people crossing our border and claiming asylum (some with legitimate cases, others merely as a means of entering the United States to improve their standard of living, having been coached or learning through their community networks of what claims to make, or needing to make no claim at all due to the degree to which the system has been overwhelmed), and that as a result detention centers and the asylum processing system have been overwhelmed, warrant admitting individuals into the United States open-endedly because the alternative is unacceptable human suffering?<\/p>\n

To be honest, I\u2019m rather resentful of the claim that these migrants can collectively compel their admittance into the United States in this manner.\u00a0 (And let\u2019s face it, eliminating detention, when paired with a refusal to enforce immigration laws \u201cin the interior\u201d through deportation or even enforcement of prohibitions of working with stolen or forged proof of work authorization or working under the table, is a de facto permanent residency under \u201csecond class\u201d living conditions.)\u00a0 One might just as reasonably accuse Democrats who are failing to push for greater funding for better-equipped detention centers, more immigration judges, etc., and instead claiming the only alternative is immediate release and provisional residency as playing a game of \u201cchicken\u201d with the well-being of these migrants as pawns.<\/p>\n

So there you have it.\u00a0 Veni ad me, fra!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3A100203houston_lg.jpg; By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), www.ice.gov. Please credit by saying \u201cPhoto Courtesy of ICE\u201d. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not going to dig into the specific comments any of the authors made, not least because that requires acquainting myself with the full back-and-forth rather than the single article I\u2019ve seen, but also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[248,463],"class_list":["post-14166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-asylum","tag-illegal-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I'm not going to dig into the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That's the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I'm not going to dig into the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-06T20:06:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2017\/02\/793px-100203houston_lg.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html\",\"name\":\"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-06T20:06:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-06T20:06:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"That's the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I'm not going to dig into the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?","description":"That's the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I'm not going to dig into the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?","og_description":"That's the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I'm not going to dig into the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2019-07-06T20:06:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2017\/02\/793px-100203houston_lg.jpg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html","name":"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-07-06T20:06:34+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-06T20:06:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"That's the gist of an argument among fellow Patheos writers that seems to have transpired while I was on vacation.\u00a0 And I'm not going to dig into the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/07\/is-immigration-restrictionism-on-the-sin-list.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Immigration Restrictionism on The Sin List?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}