\u201cIllegals\u201d are not \u201cImmorals\u201d: A Persistent Immigration Fallacy<\/a><\/p>\nWhenever the USCCB dares to advocate policies which provide for easier immigration and naturalization (e.g., here), a few of our readers shout an argument which I devoutly hope never again to hear from anyone claiming to be Catholic: \u201cWe don\u2019t owe illegals anything!\u201d<\/p>\n
Many Americans, especially conservative Americans, tend to be selective legalists. Despite their recognition of the falsity of some anti-life laws, they hold that the law confirms a sort of territorial moral exclusivity on citizens. This is one of many values which can arise from being culture bound. It typically creates a huge blind spot on immigration.<\/p>\n
There are two false assumptions here. First, there is the assumption that those who have come earlier rather than later to a particular region, and have established a government over the region, and have developed a kind of society in that region, somehow have an exclusive claim to that region as their own. This is typically applied self-servingly; it is rarely upheld for peoples who may have occupied a territory prior to \u201cus\u201d. But in any case, the idea that one group of people can morally set a broad region to be off limits to other groups of people is absurd.<\/p>\n
Where would such a moral right come from? Our God-given understanding of the universal destination of goods is sufficient to demonstrate its falsity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In addition to being wrong and utterly unrealistic (deport 12 million people?) it is monumentally crazy for conservative Catholics to treat as enemies a huge number of fellow Catholics who share their values, are socially conservative, and who just want to make a better life for themselves and their families. US immigration law is essentially the paperwork of man, not the law of God. Sort of important for record-keeping and money-handling. But such laws are made for man, not man for the law. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talking sense from the Tradition instead of nonsense from the dogmas and shibboleths of the Thing That Used to Be Conservatism: \u201cIllegals\u201d are not \u201cImmorals\u201d: A Persistent Immigration Fallacy Whenever the USCCB dares to advocate policies which provide for easier immigration and naturalization (e.g., here), a few of our readers shout an argument which I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,49],"class_list":["post-45404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-social-teaching","tag-the-thing-that-used-to-be-conservatism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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