Catholicism, and religions in general, are sets of laws and ethical principles that govern human behavior. While civil laws hold us accountable for our actions in this world, religious law holds us accountable both in this life and in the afterlife.
Nevertheless, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a recent appearance of the CBS News broadcast, Face the Nation, seemed to carve out an exception to the principle of the rule of law when it comes to immigration. Archbishop Paul Coakley took exception to the government’s efforts to hold people who violate our immigration laws accountable.
“It’s instilling, as I said, fear in a rather widespread manner. So, I think that’s something that concerns us all, that people have a right to live in security and without fear of random deportations,” Bishop Coakley stated.
How widespread that fear is, is a subjective assessment. But suffice it to say that fear is an essential element in both civil and religious law. Without fear, or at least concern, about the consequences of our actions, neither religions nor societies could exist. In that sense, fear of ICE on the part of someone who is violating immigration laws is no more objectionable than fear of other violations of law, or sinning against God.
Most people violate immigration laws for understandable reasons. They are seeking greater economic opportunity and greater freedom. As Bishop Coakley observed of his own diocese, “the majority of undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma are upstanding members of our communities and churches, not violent criminals.” He might also have observed that the majority of people who take a few fraudulent deductions on their tax returns are upstanding members of the community who are struggling to make ends meet.
The position of the Catholic Bishops focuses on the micro impact of each illegal alien, rather than on the macro effect of mass illegal immigration. But scale does matter. The impact of one illegal alien settling in the United States, filling a job at lower wages than an American counterpart, putting his kids in a public school and utilizing public services is inconsequential. The impact of 18.6 million people violating our immigration laws is monumental and affects the lives and interests of countless Americans. As the late Richard Lamm, a liberal Democratic Governor of Colorado, was fond of saying, “Every snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.”
Immigration laws, like all laws – civil and religious – exist to balance the individual interest with societal interests. Nobody picks up and leaves their homeland to settle in another country without some compelling personal interest in doing so. In such circumstances, the bishop contended that people “ought to be allowed to migrate when conditions in their homeland are unsafe and necessitate moving to a place where they can find peace and security.”
It is an unfortunate reality that the majority of the world’s 8.3 billion people live in countries that are plagued by poverty, corruption, authoritarianism, intolerance and conflict. But it is a reality, nonetheless. As understandable as it is why people would want to leave those conditions, it is understandable and legitimate why more prosperous, democratic and orderly societies have a right and an obligation to set limits on immigration – and enforce those limits.
As has become patently evident in recent times, the unchecked migration into the United States and other Western nations has created conditions in the receiving countries that are “unsafe” and undermine the “peace and security” of the existing populations. In many cases, it also challenges basic social tenets, cultures and cohesion of those nations.
Laws, be they civil or religious, are not randomly enforced, as the bishop claims. They are enforced against people who violate them. The Church itself administers punishments, up to and including excommunication, for members who violate core canons of the faith. In the case of immigration, deportation is the prescribed civil remedy for being illegally present in the United States.
The Church alone determines who is or is not a Catholic under Canon law and who can participate in such rites as receiving Communion. So too, the government of the United States exercises plenary authority to determine who is an American, or an immigrant who is allowed to live, work and access benefits here under the laws of this country. Exercising that authority includes the right to exclude or remove those who do not obey the rules.
Compassion for migrants must be balanced by recognition that governments have an obligation to protect the interests of their citizens by establishing and enforcing immigration laws. As the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all attribute to Jesus, the Church must “render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s.”