At the beginning of the year, we spoke with several advocates at a press conference on immigration reform. One of the speakers illustrated the brokenness of current immigration law, stating that it’s as if our country has two adjacent signs regarding immigration: “Keep Out” and “Now Hiring.”

Immigration reform is a complex issue, but the position of the Catholic Bishops is clear. Immigration is a moral issue, based on our teaching that every person is created in God’s image. As stated by Most Rev. Kevin Farrell, Bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, “Immigration reform must include a viable path to permanent residency for the undocumented population; a new worker program that includes appropriate worker protections, wage levels and an opportunity to earn permanent residency; reductions in family reunification backlogs, and the restoration of due process protections lost in the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.”

Root causes of migration must also be addressed. The Texas Bishops called attention to this issue in a statement released last year, stating, “immigrant families coming from Mexico are increasingly coming to the United States out of a fear for their safety and that of their families; this is exacerbating the dimensions of the humanitarian tragedy that affects immigrant families.”

Comprehensive immigration reform must be handled at the national level because immigration is a national issue. The bulk of the bills in our Immigration Bill Report (which lists state legislation that we support or oppose in that priority area) are bills we oppose on the premise that it is not the responsibility of local law enforcement, school districts, or other state or local agencies to enforce federal immigration law. These bills emphasize the “keep out” element of immigration reform, and fail to recognize the positive contributions of immigrants to our state. Efforts to require employers to comply with E-verify, a system that has high error rates, among other problems, fail to recognize that Texas is benefitting from the contributions of immigrants in our workforce. Concerns about crime and wasted tax dollars in our state are red herrings in the debate on immigration reform. Texas state and local law enforcement can already arrest immigrants for crimes they commit. The State Comptroller showed that, in the 2005 budget year, undocumented immigrants produced 1.58 billion dollars in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received.

We are, however, pleased to support positive immigration legislation that maintains an appropriate relationship between state and federal government. HB 48, sponsored by Representative Peña (R), and SB 288, sponsored by Senator Lucio (D) allow the Department of Public Safety to review the feasibility of southbound checkpoints and to cooperate with the federal government in setting them up. The intent of these bills is to secure the border and stop the flow of arms and bulk currency to drug cartels and gangs.  We support border enforcement measures that are targeted, proportional, and humane, and we hope that this legislation will pass and help end the violence occurring in Texas and Mexico.

For more information on these bills, as well as other bills relevant to our Immigration legislative priority, visit our Bill Reports page by clicking the “Bill Reports” button on our web page, www.TXcatholic.org.To learn the facts and combat the myths surround this issue, visit the Justice for Immigrants web site: www.JusticeforImmigrants.org.