Dear Catholic Exchange,
Mary Kochan in her article “Family Trumps All in Immigration Reform” somehow imagines that the majority of illegal immigrants are fathers. (By the way, misidentifying those who are in this country illegally as “immigrants,” to be politically correct, doesn't help in the debate.)
How does she know that so many are fathers? I doubt that anyone, especially our government, has any idea how many illegals are here let alone what their individual circumstances are or their ties to a family.
Making broad unsubstantiated assumptions about who illegals are leads one to a possibly different conclusion about how to write immigration policies, enforce them and what to do with those who are here illegally.
Coming from a Catholic standpoint I understand her concern that tearing fathers away from their family and especially their children is a recipe for disaster. But we have to be realistic and realize that the US cannot allow millions of illegals to continue to come into this country every year and do nothing about it. That is a greater recipe for disaster.
E. Biggerstaff
Sumner, WA
Dear Viewer,
Thank you for your comments. I thought that I made it very clear by saying it more than once that I am absolutely in favor of the US controlling its borders. I also agree that we need to know who is here through documentary processes, backed up by stiff legal consequences for lack of cooperation.
Now for the question of what we call the people who have entered this country illegally but generally for the honorable purpose of working to build a better life for their families: You call them “illegals,” a term that I find rather dehumanizing. Various bishops and other defenders like to call them “undocumented workers,” as though the only thing wrong was they didn’t happen to have their papers on them. I split the difference and I was not being politically correct. “Immigrating” means moving to another country, legally or not. Their doing so makes them “immigrants,” but let’s be honest about the status and say that they are illegal immigrants — that does not assume they are working either.
No, I do not know how many of them are fathers, or mothers. I know, just from news reports and by keeping my eyes open, that a number are. The idea that there is some “realistic” approach that could ignore the family ties involved is something I reject. Like I said, family trumps all here — including, for me, punishing them for crossing the border.
I know this is a huge and complicated problem. Good Catholics can disagree on the solution, but we need to keep charity at the front of our discussion.
Mrs. Mary Kochan
Senior Editor, Catholic Exchange
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