Mexico? You Shall Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Why is it so difficult for us to put up a fence, enforce screening policies for those who want to immigrate from Central America and both control our borders and admit new citizens?

Why is it so difficult to set up a compassionate, legal process to grant amnesty and citizenship to those who are already here?

Why is that such a bad thing? Do we not need a new wave of smart, hard working  immigrants to help bring prosperity and growth to our economy?

This is not just a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual issue.

If we’re Catholics we’re supposed to be on the side of the refugee, the immigrant, the homeless and the destitute.

Why? Because we see Jesus Christ in them for he had nowhere to lay his head. He was hunted and homeless. He was a political refugee.

Is the immigration issue  messy? Yes. Is it complicated? Yes.

Do poor people take advantage of the system? Yes–don’t you when you cheat on your taxes?

Are all Mexicans wonderful, hard working, family loving, clean and polite Catholics? No. There are some stinkers too. Welcome to the human race.

I don’t pretend to be a political person, and I don’t pretend to have the practical answers to complex problems.

But I do know that we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves and to paint all Mexican immigrants as the enemy will cause more problems than it will solve.