Posted on 09/10/2008 10:21:41 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
US Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday charged that immigration raids on US workplaces break up families and disrupt communities, without addressing the country's flawed immigration system. "The humanitarian costs of these raids are immeasurable and unacceptable in a civilized society," Bishop John Wester, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) committee on migration, said.
"I call upon the Department of Homeland Security and President (George W.) Bush to reconsider the use of these worksite enforcement raids, and without the implementation of necessary human rights protections, to please abandon them," he told a news conference.
"We ask them and the country, including the presidential candidates, to again turn their energies for building support for a comprehensive overhaul of our broken immigration system," he said.
The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has focused on rounding up illegals in raids and sending them home since attempts to reform US immigration laws fell apart last year, said Wester.
In a single raid in Mississippi last month, some 595 illegal immigrants -- many of them Latinos -- were arrested by ICE agents, the agency says on its website.
In the past 10 months, thousands of illegal workers have been netted in the raids, according to news reports.
The bishops complained that the "sweeping nature of the raids -- which often involve hundreds of law enforcement personnel with weapons -- strike fear in immigrant communities and make it difficult for those arrested to secure basic due process protections, including legal counsel."
The raids disrupt communities, including legal permanent residents and US citizens, and brutally break up families, often Hispanics, who make up the largest immigrant group and nearly half of whom are Catholic.
"Husbands are separated from their wives, children from their parents. Many families never recover; others never reunite," Wester said.
"Imagine a child coming home from school and his primary care-giver is not there," he said.
But the bishops rigorously denied they were pushing for immigration reforms out of fear the crackdowns would whittle away at congregation sizes.
"The issue that we're trying to recruit and fill our pews is not based in reality. The reality is that people are showing up at our parishes, our social services programs, seeking assistance," said Latino Bishop James Tamayo, whose diocese is located on the border between the United States and Mexico.
Tamayo expressed support for immigration officials who undertake a difficult but essential task, but insisted that workplace raids violated human dignity.
"The Catholic church has always supported the right of a nation to protect its sovereignty and to secure its borders," he said.
"Such enforcement must be tempered, however, in a way that balances the national interest with the basic God-given right and dignity of human beings. These raids fail to meet this test," he said.
“The issue that we’re trying to recruit and fill our pews is not based in reality...”
LIAR!
Unfortunately the people have broken the law of this country and did it knowingly and willingly. It is right that they are held accountable and treated equally for laws that they have broken. The immigration raids are quite accommodating to mothers of children. I must part ways on this one issue with the bishops. It makes it difficult for me that they believe this way, but these people have broken the law. I am however glad they are being more outspoken on the abortion issue with ‘Catholic’ politicians. I am very pleased.
> “Such enforcement must be tempered, however, in a way that balances the national interest with the basic God-given right and dignity of human beings. These raids fail to meet this test,” he said.
I would be curious to know if the good Father has any suggestions to offer. I’m certain the INS would be most interested in implementing anything that was FEASIBLE.
They should avert their attention Heavenward..
Let them handle Vatican City as they want to. For the rest of the world, we have to do what is right to maintain our countries’ borders against all these illegals who break our laws and take our jobs.
Is this a guilt repayment for killing the Mayans and Incas and other indigenous Indian peoples of Mexico and central and south America in the name of God by the Church?
This is apparently the “official line” of the Catholic church, as these were bishops saying such tripe.
They surely do not speak for God on such matters, which are not of the venue of the churches’ purview.
1) they are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” so their children are not citizens
2) it’s all about the collection plate in Catholic Mass
These same US bishops gave sanctuary in the ‘80s to defeated Marxist rebels from El Salvador in their churches. These rebels formed Mara Salvatrucha XIII, the most dangerous gang in the world, responsible for the murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans.
IDIOTS!
Their lies disgust me too, and I am Catholic!
I value law and order over the church's need for cash.
It's just so disgusting to see these d@mn Catholic "leaders" promote lawlessness for money.
That often happens when people commit crimes.
Anyone who thinks illegals contribute to the collection plate is a moron.
Me: its all about the collection plate in Catholic Mass
A.A. Cunningham: Anyone who thinks illegals contribute to the collection plate is a moron.
Me:
1) Check out posts 2 and 12. I am not the only one with this perception. Freeper Prole is even Catholic, and does not consider it violence to reason when suspecting financial motive.
2) Notice the conservative Evangelical Pastors aren’t coming out of the woodwork, and swinging for the fences on this one. Notice Jewish Rabbis nor Muslim Imams are not either. It’s just the Catholic leaders, and your local/national Marxists. Self interest FRiend.
3) Notice how “Latino Bishop James Tamayo” has to deflect criticism that it’s all about the money. Why deflect criticism if it is not based in reality? Is the Bishop not perceiving reality? General Guideline: If you have to say, “It’s not about the money!”, then it is likely ... all about the money.
4) Notice how quickly you had to descend to calling me “a moron”. If you had a list of points, I would have heard them. Maybe you were in a rush? You are better than this. You forgot yourself. After all, you are here FRiend, looking for rational discourse.
Have a great day!
I went to Mass one-two times a week while in college, and even attended while in Germany and France.
HOWEVER, all of these things become secondary in importance when I realize that Catholic leaders are IN FACT promoting lawlessness by trying to blur the lines of right and wrong with federal officials.
The Catholic leadership should remember John 10:1 which says:
"Truly I say to you, He who does not go through the door into the place where the sheep are kept, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and an outlaw."
Those are our Lord Jesus' words, not mine.
I become an ANGRY Catholic when I hear about the church leadership's refusal to respect and obey America's laws.
What in the sam heck is a "primary care giver?" Is that post-modern new age gobbledygook for "mother?"
I think it was the Aztecs and the Inca. The Mayan civilization had long since fallen without any European interference.
4) Notice how quickly you had to descend to calling me a moron.
If the shoe fits, tiger. Bring back some objective data, not anecdotal and supposition, and then you might be taken seriously, until then you are as previously described.
All right man. I have not personally inspected the take at Catholic mass in Denver, under your priest. You got me.
“Moron” eh? :)
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