Imagine you are Lazarus at the gate --- hungry, ill and beaten down by life --- asking the rich man for assistance (Luke 16).
On the other side of the gate is a better life: still filled with hard work but one where you can at least find a job.
On your side of the gate, you have no job and no help. Your child asks you for more food. Your mother is dying because of poor medical care. For years, your search for work has been fruitless.
The gate is wide, but some places are blocked off. You have never been allowed to get in line for a safe passage --- the number allowed to pass is very small.
Passing through the gate is something you are very reluctant to do. You will not see your family for years. You will miss births, weddings, first Communions and, yes, funerals for the ones you love most.
This is another way through. It is not sanctioned, and is very dangerous. People die along it every day.
But you have no other choice if you are to provide for your family and yourself.
Under legislation now being considered, if Lazarus passes through that gate --- the U.S. southern border --- without permission he becomes a felon. Had a kind soul given him a drink of water on the journey, that person too will have committed a felony.
Today in the United States, the cries of the poor have been drowned out. We are so focused on maintaining the rule of law, that many have lost compassion for people without documents.
At present, citizens requesting permission for immediate family to legally immigrate may wait eight to 10 years. An immigration system designed to unite families is instead keeping them apart. Something is wrong.
But there are those who say our laws are more important than the plight of the poor. That we must insist hungry people wait patiently --- probably never even get a chance to be admitted --- and find a different way to help their families. The United States cannot help. Look elsewhere for an answer.
A nation has the right to control its borders. One of government's foremost duties is to protect its citizens from those who would destroy us.
Are immigrants without documents who are striving to put bread on the table trying to destroy us? No. Why are they coming to this country in the first place? It's because we invite them through the gate by hiring them. The rich man needs labor to harvest crops, to clean houses, to wait on tables and to make gardens beautiful.
Yet the cry for them to stay away only becomes louder, drowning out the cries of the poor --- poverty in those other countries is their problem, not ours.
People must take care of themselves, rises the chorus. But when migrants leave all they know to seek work in the United States --- taking personal responsibility --- they are chastised and branded "illegals."
No human life should be called illegal --- it's demeaning, uncaring and against Catholic teaching.
Poverty pushes, and jobs pull them to the United States. Governments on both sides of the border are neglecting their cries.
Sending people back to their own countries --- as one of the more onerous proposals suggest --- is like asking a person to make a sand castle with no sand. The lack of opportunities for them is what compelled them to come here in the first place.
And exactly how do you move 11 million people. That's like asking everybody in the state of Ohio or Michigan to up and leave while we sort things out.
I believe in the rule of law, but I also believe that justice is the end, the law is only the means.
Currently, our United States Senator Dianne Feinstein, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, is at the forefront of the immigration debate. And members of Congress say they are literally only hearing from the anti-immigrant crowd.
The proposal that reflects most of the U.S. Bishop's recommendation is S. 1033, by Senators McCain and Kennedy. (Visit www.justiceforimmigrants.org for information on current legislation.)
If you can imagine yourself in Lazarus' place, please call Senators Feinstein and Boxer, as well as your local Congressperson. They must hear the cries of the poor. It is up to people of good will to raise their voices on behalf of others.
Lazarus had no right to cross that gate, so he stayed behind and perished. Eventually, says the parable, so too did the rich person.
Fortunately, this is one parable where we can still work to change the ending. Steve Pehanich is the executive director of Catholic Charities of California. Contact him at spehanich@cacatholic.org. |