Handouts
for workshops on Immigration
Immigration
Recommendations
USSCB
(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) with position
documents from 2003 to 2011 recommend*:
1. Need
to welcome visitors (many stated in Bible), especially those who need
to move for survival(lack means to obtain food, water and basic
medical care). Need to reduce limits on immigration that doesn't
meet these basic needs for the immigrant or prospective employers.
(Also reference the Catholic Catechism, #2241.)
2. Need
to pay a “living wage.” Should note that migrants, both
documented and undocumented don't generally get paid a “living
wage.” All Popes, the six who have written Encyclicals on a “just
wage,” from Leo XIII through Benedict XVI, state that it should be
enough to support (which would include health care) and educate a
family, and have a comfortable retirement. Not only migrant or
immigrant workers rarely earn such a wage, but probably 50% of
employed citizens today don't.
3.
Easier and briefer work permits policy and route to citizenship
4.
Enforcement should consider impact on children and families.
5.
Enforcement should be targeted toward immigrants who are criminal,
violent, a threat to National Security.
6.
Refugees seeking asylum should not be imprisoned.
7.
(U.S. Chiefs of Police recommend* no punishment of victims or
witnesses of crime, because it interferes with law enforcement,
including of violent crimes.) We should also recommend this.
8.
USCCB agrees that becoming a citizen, should include required
background checks & paying a fine and avoided taxes.
There
seems a focus by the general public and a
tendency in law enforcement to target “the least of these.”
Numerous criminal justice studies demonstrate this. The same has
been true with immigration. Although employing undocumented persons
is a criminal offense since 1986, our enforcement, even imprisonment
has been mainly against the undocumented rather than employers.
9. We
should recommend that employers of undocumented
also pay a fee and taxes avoided, including for paying
“under the table.” (They got an
unfair advantage over those employers who obeyed the law.)
We could recommend an amnesty for employers
from criminal (rarely enforced until recently)and other civil
enforcement in exchange for voluntary participation. We should be
able to trace employers who do not voluntarily submit, and still have
it be administrative rather than criminal, with level of evidence
being preponderance of evidence (vs. beyond a reasonable doubt), with
hearsay evidence admitted. For those who don't voluntarily
participate, enforcement and court fees should also
attach.
*Recommendations from US
Bishops (USCCB) and Chiefs of Police extrapolated from several and
summary position papers from the USCCB and one from US Police Chiefs.
See their websites for full texts. Note also the encyclicals on
“Just Wage,” available on the Vatican website.
Compiled
by Robert E. Golden, who served as chair of Pres. Reagan's Migrant
Health Advisory Commission and is currently chair of the Buffalo
Diocesan Sub-Committee on Immigration
Robert
E. Golden, goldenjazz59@gmail.com
, 585-682-4821 and on Facebook
