"What you did to the least of these, you did to me." Although Jesus said many things, His clearest concern was for the vulnerable. The vulnerable include our veterans, seniors, children and families.
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President Obama Must Continue to Push for Congressional Action
Catholics United executive director Chris Korzen issued the following statement in response to President Obama's speech today calling for comprehensive immigration reform:
“For far too long, the American people have lived with a broken immigration system as leaders in Washington offer strong words and scant results. While we welcome President Obama's call for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill, his words must be matched with action. Tough, practical, and fair immigration reform will only succeed with the president's unrelenting leadership.”
“Comprehensive immigration reform means securing our borders, cracking down on illegal employers, and requiring illegal immigrants to pay taxes, learn English, and become law-abiding citizens. Absent an approach that achieves these objectives, our nation will continue to face an ever-growing crisis.”
“It's because of Washington's continued inaction that partisan interests have been able to use the immigration issue to score cheap political points without delivering results. Legislation such as Arizona's recently passed immigration law offers no real solutions and only serves those who profit from the politics of division. On behalf of our members – and those Catholics committed to social justice and the common good – we call for strong presidential leadership and swift action on immigration reform.”
1. I note that immigration
1. I note that immigration comes from migration.
2. I debriefed refugees and defectors in Germany for two years during the cold war.
3. I later read a report on migration [I vaguely remember funded by the VA] that concluded that there are four significant reasons that pull one to, or not to, migrate.
I. Economic improvement.
II. Family.
III. Friends.
IV. Community.
I would note Freedom [personal or Religious], criminal pursuits [i.e., the mafia comes to mind], education, etc. might well have been a factor that weighed in some individual decision but these or other factors were not a significant push pull migration issue.
4. When I applied these factors to my direct experience with refugees and defectors I realized that this report reflected what I saw in my Cold War assignment in Germany.
5. I have weighed these factors against "immigration" and it tells me that [I will leave out my trail of thoughts leading me along] immigration policy and practice will only work, in most cases, when the national government has set up a system to deal with it. In Germany the German government had a system to absorb and integrate East Germans and other refugees from the old Soviet empire. In the U.S. when immigrants flowed through Ellis Island and the west coast processing point, it worked. In neither of the noted cases did the National Governments really invite immigration, they just dealt with the issue.
6. It was economic opportunity that was the major reason the refugees came through Berlin. When the Wall came down and East Germany was united with West Germany the mass migration slowed to a trickle and the system, as operating, simply was no longer needed. The Economy in Germany and in other western European countries started drawing needed workers from Muslim countries [usually called Guest Workers], however, there was no national system to absorb the "Guest Workers" into the host country.
7. In the U. S. we share a long border with Latin America and the economy needed workers. First agricultural and later other labor sectors. There has never been an actual national policy developed and implemented by the National Government. Employers simply did what they needed to do to acquire needed labor. I do not need to paint this picture further.
It is my view that the failure of the U. S. National Government to respond to the need for a modern version of Ellis Island that is at the root of the "illegal" worker problem. This in reality is what gave force to Arizona's perceived need to deal with the issue. When I see demands for action I see inaction or the band-aide approach by the National Government and this applies to both the Democratic and Republican Parties.
8. The answer is not a fence, capture and deport, etc. The answer is a comprehensive national policy and system, backed by law, to deal with the problem. It would seem reasonable to note that some employers like the present chaos as they can treat illegals as individuals who have no rights, thus such issues as just wages, health care and other normal benefits can be avoided. Other employers would willingly address the benefits if the workers were in a legal status. Ideally such a system would include consultation and even coordination with Mexico and other Latin countries.
9. Thus it is difficult to sign on to support band-aide approaches as the record shows they do not work. So whether you are a Common Good person, a business person, a Democrat, a Republican, etc., this issue simply must be dealt with at the national level. Nothing else will work.