Mich. Bishops urge support for immigrants, undocumented

Detroit — Blaming undocumented persons for problems more accurately attributed to a failed federal policy is unfair and mistaken, Michigan’s seven diocesan bishops said in a policy statement released Aug. 3. 

The statement, coordinated by the Michigan Catholic Conference, is being sent to Catholics across the state, to members of the Michigan legislature, and also to members of Michigan’s congressional delegation. 

The MCC is the public policy voice of all seven Michigan dioceses. 

The bishops’ statement draws attention to the lack of a cohesive and effective federal policy on immigration that addresses the common good of all peoples in the country, and points out that Congress’s failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform has led to individual states, including Michigan, addressing the issue. 

The bishops call on the Michigan Legislature to reject any measure that impugns immigrants, especially the undocumented, and urge members of the Michigan congressional delegation to do their part to fix the nation’s immigration system at the federal level. 

Writing in a July 31 op-ed column in the Detroit Free Press, Archbishop Allen Vigneron, who chairs the MCC, decried the detentions or deportations of persons “who may be guilty of nothing other than finding a dignified standard of living in a country that has risen to great heights by welcoming strangers.” 

While acknowledging the right of the government to take action to control its borders, he characterized current federal immigration policy as “antiquated, ineffective, and in desperate need of reform.” 

“The nation’s current policy has led to the arrival of millions of unauthorized persons and to the death of thousands of migrants attempting to cross the border in the American Southwest. It has meant the allocation of billions of scarce federal dollars to secure the nation’s borders and led to an increase in the number of federal agents,” he wrote. 

Border regulations must be formulated and administered “with justice and mercy, as people have a God-given right to migrate when necessary to sustain their lives and their families,” Archbishop Vigneron wrote. 

In the bishops’ view, “The federal government has the responsibility to enact and enforce laws that treat migrant peoples with the same dignity as its native-born citizens. As such, there must be a concerted effort to find a pathway toward citizenship for undocumented persons who live here, who work here, have raised a family here and have contributed to the common good.”