Catholic Conference of Kentucky

Nearly 50 priests, parish leaders, and diocesan staff gathered in Elizabethtown at St. James Parish for the first of two advocacy training session centered on discussions of the comprehensive immigration reform legislation moving through Congress.

Patti Gutierrez, of the Owensboro diocese, reviewed the church’s powerful teaching regarding migrants and how we are called to welcome them. She also engaged participants in discussions of specific cases to give everyone a sense of how difficult it really is to enter the country lawfully. The case studies helped enhance participants’ understanding of the complexity of the immigration system and why reform is so desperately needed.

CCK associate director, Jason Hall, then described the principles the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops uses to decide whether or not the various provisions in the legislation is in accord with Catholic teaching.

The Church has consistently called for the legislation to include a path to citizenship and S. 744, the current proposal, does include this and we are supporting that measure. It does not currently provide for all those whom it could and CCK and USCCB will press for amendments to include additional immigrants.

Family unity, keeping families together, is another important element of reform. The bill does increase the number of visas which will be available for family reunification and we will watch to ensure this provision is not weakened by opponents.

The bishops are calling for the “restoration of due process,” which was weakened in legislation in the mid-’90s. Several provisions of S. 744 accomplish this and call for more humane treatment of persons who are detained and caught up in deportation proceedings. The bill gives judges greater discretion to make decisions about deporting persons and allows for the appointment of lawyers for vulnerable persons who could face torture and death were they returned to their home countries.

Vulnerable populations deserve greater protection. This would include a rising number of children who arrive in the U. S. without parents or other adults. It could also be persons who are victims of human trafficking, as well as others.  The legislation does call for visas for victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and others. It enable the President to designate certain particularly vulnerable populations such as children who have grown up in refugee camps. Other provisions – new “W” visas for low-skilled workers, a new temporary worker program, the ability of the Secretary of Agriculture to adjust visa availability based on labor demand – all meet the criteria applied by the church for support.

One area left out of this reform measure still needs to be addressed, here or in other legislation. As part of the church’s teaching on migration is to try and address the “Root Causes of Migration.” What prompts the need for people to migrate from their own nation? Are there push factors such as poverty or violence with the nation’s borders that need to be studied and addressed? S. 744 does not look at the root causes nor attempt any meaningful study, analysis, or pilot programs to tackle these issues. The U. S. bishops will work with Catholic Relief Services and others to ensure Congress takes up the issue in some fashion.

In the afternoon participants spent nearly two hours discussing strategies and actions to take back in the parishes and agencies where they live and work. Many excellent ideas flowed from this effort and were share verbally near the end of the day. Future posts and action alerts will take up some of these as they are implemented.

Readers of this post are encouraged to attend to next advocacy training at Pax Christi parish in Lexington on Thursday, May 23. Registration is required and you can link to the registration form from our home page.

Also, please take a moment to contact members of the U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee and urge them to approve amendments that improve the bill reflect the above criteria. Click here to TAKE ACTION now.

Photo: Pat Delahanty

Here is Governor Beshear’s Press Release Regarding Medicaid Expansion. It closes with the following:

A new state website houses information about the expansion, including the CHFS white paper and letters from supporters. Visitors can also explore county-by-county data such as how many citizens will be newly eligible for Medicaid, or how much county jails spent on medical care last year. Visitgovernor.ky.gov/healthierky to learn more.

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The Conference welcomes Gov. Steve Beshear’s decision to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act’s provision that allows the state to expand Medicaid to those whose incomes fall below 138% of the federal poverty level. This means more than 300,000 uninsured Kentuckians will have health insurance and access to medical care. Until now, persons without insurance would put off seeking treatment for health care until it became life-threatening and end up seeking treatment in costly emergency rooms.

In a press release issued today the Conference wrote:

Gov. Beshear

Earlier this year, the Conference had written Lawrence Kissner, Commissioner for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, describing some of the services that the Catholic Charities agencies and individual parishes provide to vulnerable populations seeking their help. The Conference also pointed out how the Catholic hospital network throughout the state provides “care and comfort to all those who present themselves for treatment, many of them very poor and without insurance.”

“We measure governmental policies by asking this primary question: how will this policy affect poor persons,” said Delahanty. “Today, the Governor answered correctly.”

You can download a copy of the Kentucky Bishops’ 2005 statement on health care as a basic human right here.

Photo: Courtesy Office of the Governor

Questions like those in the past two posts and in the material below provides a preview for our discussions during the two training sessions scheduled for May 16 and May 23. Registration is necessary because we don’t want anyone to go without lunch. To register visit here and sign up. To send a postcard to your members of Congress supporting comprehensive immigration reform that reflects church teaching click here. A wealth of resources regarding the Church and immigration is found at the USCCB’s Justice For Immigrants website.

Some charge that the Church is in favor of a nation without borders, that we support illegal immigration. Some also say that by providing legal status to the undocumented, we are rewarding law breaking. How do you respond to these issues?

The Church has always supported the right of a sovereign nation to secure its borders, although it should be done in a manner that protects human life, to the greatest degree possible. The Church does not favor illegal immigration in any sense. It is not good for the migrant, who often suffers abuse by smugglers, exploitation in the workplace, and even death in the desert. It is not good for society or for local communities, because it creates a permanent underclass with no rights and no opportunity to assert them. That is why the Church supports the creation of legal avenues for migration and legal status for migrants.

As mentioned, the Church does not condone the breaking of laws and supports a path to citizenship that requires migrants to pay a fine and meet other requirements. Once the system is reformed, migrants should be able to enter legally and not be forced to cross illegally or overstay their visas. Currently, they have no pathways to enter the country legally, despite the need for their labor.

In general, is immigration good for our country or does it create new burdens on U.S. citizens?

Except for Native Americans, we are all descendants of immigrants or are immigrants ourselves. Immigrants have helped build the great nation we enjoy today. While opponents of immigration will attempt to raise the fears of U.S. citizens that immigrants today take away jobs, change the culture, and eat up public resources, the truth of the matter is that today’s immigrants are no different than previous generations. They come to work hard and to support their families, not to take public resources or commit crimes. This is borne out in the majority of research studies on the subject, which conclude that, overall, immigrants are contributors to our economy and helpful to our local communities. They also bring a spiritual energy and richness which enriches our worship and Church.

Some say that letting in too many immigrants, because they are often a cheap source of labor, could hurt the wages of workers already in the country. Is this known to be true?

Immigrant workers generally do not compete with U.S. workers for unskilled jobs. Some studies show that immigrant workers may have an impact on the job status and wages of low-skilled American workers, such as high school dropouts. Overall, however, immigrant workers fill crucial jobs in important industries that many American will not do, such as agriculture. By enacting immigration reform, the wages of immigrant workers will increase because they will be better able to assert their rights in the workplace and because the pool of unauthorized workers will dwindle.

Photos: courtesy Pat Delahanty

Click on Postcard to Send a Message to Congress

Does the Church have the right to speak out on immigration reform, which is largely a political issue?

All public policy issues—abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, poverty reduction, marriage and family, and immigration reform—have both political and moral aspects to them. The Church is well within her rights to speak out on public policy issues of moral consequence and often does. In fact, the Church has a moral obligation to speak out on issues which impact human dignity and human life.

In the immigration area, the Church brings special expertise to the table because we are an immigrant church and we have helped assist immigrants assimilate into the nation for years. Moreover, many immigrant families who attend Catholic parishes would be positively impacted by immigration reform and a legalization program.

Would providing legal status and possible citizenship to undocumented immigrants be considered an “amnesty?”

First, “amnesty” is not a dirty word from the Catholic perspective. Forgiveness and compassion are values that Catholics, as well as Americans, promote and cherish. (more…)

Click on Postcard to take action

Very soon now the country will embark on a debate about one of the most important issues the nation faces: how to reform a broken immigration system. Millions of undocumented workers live in the country, thousands of employers need low-skilled workers, families have been waiting for years for relatives to join them, citizen children watch as federal agents remove their parents from the home and from the U. S.

But, finally Congress and the administration appear prepared to act in a way that brings about a bi-partisan agreement leading to a fair and just reform to this chaotic situation.

Some Catholics, like other citizens, wonder why is the Church speaking about this. Over a number of posts here we hope to answer this and other questions about the issue. Here are links to two key documents from which we draw some answers:

• Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope; and
• Every Man and Woman Is the Image of God.

What, in a nutshell, is the U.S. bishops’ position on immigration reform?

The Catholic Church believes that the current U.S. immigration system is broken and needs to be reformed comprehensively. This would include a path to citizenship for the 11-12 million undocumented in the country; a temporary worker program to allow migrant workers to enter safely and humanely; and family-based immigration reform which allows families to be reunited more quickly. The Church also teaches that the root causes of migration—namely, global economic disparities—need to be addressed.

The Church has taken a position on immigration because, besides being an economic, social, and legal issue, it is also a humanitarian one, and, ultimately has moral implications. Each day church social service programs, hospitals, schools, and parishes see the human consequences of a broken system: families are divided, migrant workers are exploited and abused, and human beings die in the desert.

This impacts human dignity and human life and should be addressed.

Migration is a major theme in the Gospels. Jesus and the Holy Family were refugees who fled the terror of Herod and Jesus, the Son of Man, was an itinerant teacher while on Earth, with “no place to lay His Head.” Jesus also taught us to “welcome the stranger,” for “what you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me.” (Matthew: 25:35-41)

Click here to take action now.

Next: Does the Church have the right to speak out on immigration reform, which is largely a political issue?