The 12 million illegals, many of whom are Catholic and Mexican, aren't total losses to our culture. They are filling the Catholic Churches.
I have always bashed the illegals. Darn. Now I see great value to them in this respect.
The Hispanics, like the rest of us in the Americas, are culturally Christian and culturally Western. That’s a huge plus (+) followed by a Question Mark (?).
They have problems within their communities, of which illegality is only one. The fact that 2 out of 3 Hispanic children is born out of wedlock is another; and it’s much more troubling, in my estimation, than their frequent lack of legal status.
I just read the recent survey that showed that American Catholics are practically identical to American non-Catholics in beliefs, attitudes and behavior, (voting patterns, income, education, sexual cohabitation, divorce, contraception, homosexuality, addiction to pornography, etc.) and differ in only two respects from American non-Catholics: compared to non-Catholics, we recycle more. And we tithe less.
If the Catholic Church in the USA were really, robustly Catholic, we’d be in an excellent position to welcome huge numbers of newcomers, to our immense and mutual enrichment.
As of now, it’s a little chancy on both sides.