US bishops call for comprehensive immigration reform by end of year

June 19, 2009

Writing on behalf of his brother bishops, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued a statement urging President Barack Obama and congressional leaders to work together to enact comprehensive immigration reform by the end of the year.

“We urge respect and observance of all just laws, and we do not approve or encourage the illegal entry of anyone into our country,” Cardinal George writes. “From a humanitarian perspective, however, our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths.”

He continues, “Now is the time to address this pressing humanitarian issue which affects so many lives and undermines basic human dignity. Our society should no longer tolerate a status quo that perpetuates a permanent underclass of persons and benefits from their labor without offering them legal protections.”

 

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Further information:

• Cardinal George, Bishops Ask President Obama, Congress To Enact Comprehensive Immigration Reform Before End Of 2009 (USCCB)
• Bishops endorse immigration reform (John L Allen Jr’s blog)