August 25, 2024 - "Second Basic Principle on Immigration"

Second Principle: A country has a right to regulate its borders and control immigration.  The preeminent principle of all Catholic social teaching is that individuals must make economic, political, and social decisions with regard to the common good and not out of short-sided self-interest. This means that a truly moral person cannot consider only what is good for his or her own self and family but must act for the good of all people as his or her guiding principle.

 

While individuals have a right to move in search of a safe and humane life, no country is bound to accept all those who wish to resettle there.  By this principle the Church recognizes that most immigration is in the end not something to celebrate.  Ordinarily people do not leave the security of their own land and culture just to seek adventure in a new place or merely to enhance their standard of living.  Instead, they are desperate and the opportunity for a safe and secure life does not exist in their own land.  Immigrants and refugees endure many hardships and often long for the homes they left behind. As Americans we should cherish and celebrate the contributions of immigrants and their cultures; however, we should work to make it unnecessary for people to leave their own land.

 

Because there seems to be no end to poverty, war, and misery in the world, developed nations will continue to experience pressure from many peoples who desire to resettle in their lands. Catholic social teaching is realistic: While people have a right to move, no country has the duty to receive so many immigrants that its social and economic life are jeopardized.

For this reason, Catholics should not view the work of the federal government and its immigration control as negative or evil. Those who work to enforce our nation’s immigration laws often do so out of a sense of loyalty to the common good and compassion for poor people seeking a better life. In an ideal world, there would be no need for immigration control. The Church recognizes that this ideal world has not yet been achieved. 

 

Father Betz made some of these points again in his interview with Lou Baldwin of CatholicPhilly.com, when Mr. Baldwin asked Father Betz what the United States should be doing to exercise its right to maintain its borders and control immigration.  Father Betz stressed that it was important to state that those who enforce immigration laws are neither villains nor the enemy.  Our country has a right, even a duty, to have immigration controls and to enforce them.  We should respect and appreciate those who work for the immigration enforcement agency.  But we need to ask what the right policy should be.  It is not fair—and indeed it is not true—to say enforcing immigration laws is immoral.

 

Next week we’ll look at the third basic principle in Catholic social teaching on immigration.

 

    Until then,      Fr. John