Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform Speak on Lou Dobbs Show [Read a transcript of the segment here]

This week, as Catholics and Christians descend on Congress to lobby for truly comprehensive immigration reform, journalist Lisa Sylvester and Lou Dobbs begin and end the above segment by saying that the first responsibility we Americans have is to ourselves. What they appear to be forgetting is that the economic reality of life in America as we know it - from restaurant kitchens to hotel laundries to the fruits and vegetables lining the American refrigerator - depends on the labor of those that are quickly becoming members of America's latest underclass.

According to the New York Times, the tax revenue the U.S. government gets from undocumented immigrants numbers in the billions. But it's not just a question of the economic boon immigrants bring to our nation's coffers - or to our local communities. It's also - and most importantly - a question of human rights.

America has a right to protect its borders, as does every nation. But protecting our borders cannot and should not come at the expense of our fellow human beings, whose only real crime is falling victim to our nation's international trade policies. Our global economy comes at the expense of their poverty, their quest for something as simple, and basic, as survival. It is not amnesty we - and they - seek. Nor is it charity for the downtrodden. It is, simply put, justice.

Catholic Social Teaching states that it is our duty as Catholics is to care for the least of these as we would care for ourselves. It's the golden rule, the rule that every Catholic child - and even every American child - learned about in school. It would serve us well to remember it as we call our leaders to create policy that respects our nation's sovereignty only when it respects the rights of everyone livingin its borders, regardless of whether or not they have the right documentation.