He acknowledged the fears of immigration opponents as legitimate, naming the concerns about a terrorist attack or downward pressure on wages.
“So we have to do a better job of listening to people. And we need to be calm about presenting the facts,” the archbishop said, naming the economic need for a large immigrant workforce and the already increased border security as subjects people need to be reminded about.
Another fact to acknowledge, Archbishop Gomez added, is that “millions of immigrants are here in blatant violation of U.S. law.”
“This makes law-abiding Americans angry. And it should. Why should they obey the laws if others aren’t punished for breaking them? As advocates, we can’t ignore this fact or somehow argue that our immigration laws don’t matter.”
However, the archbishop said legal reforms are necessary.
Reform the Response to Illegal Immigration
“The law should not be used to scare people, to invade their homes and work-sites, to break up families,” he continued. “From a practical standpoint, I don’t see how these measures are solving any problems. Instead, they’re creating new ones.”
The deportations of immigrants, he charged, are “breaking up families” and thus “leaving wives without husbands, children without parents. … As we all know, a policy that breaks families apart can only lead to greater sufferings and social problems.”
Saying those in the U.S. illegally can’t “expect to escape punishment,” but seeing deportation as a punishment “disproportionate to the crime,” he endorsed “intensive, long-term community service” as a “far more constructive solution.”
“This would build communities rather than tear them apart. And it would serve to better integrate the immigrants into the social and moral fabric of America,” Archbishop Gomez said.
“The Church has an important role to play in promoting forgiveness and reconciliation on this issue,” he stated. “We must work so that justice and mercy, not anger and resentment, are the motives behind our response to illegal immigration.”
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He explained to the audience that the Greek word for hospitality is “philoxenia,” literally “the love of strangers.” Noting that Christians worship “the God who is Love,” he concluded:
“Let us be faithful servants of Love. Let us abound in love, in good works and hospitality for the strangers among us.”