Video
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Immigration, charity and national integrity
Q: Illegal immigrants are flouting U.S. laws, but does affluent America (or Arizona for that matter) have a larger moral or spiritual obligation to help illegal immigrants who are trying to better their lives? What about religious obligations to welcome the stranger? Are we our brother's keeper?
Immigration is an issue of national integrity. Of course, reaction to recent legislation in Arizona shows that national integrity can be defined in any number of mutually exclusive ways.
For supporters of the Arizona anti-illegal immigration law, the issues are the integrity of American law and of American society itself. Indeed, the key provision of the Arizona legislation is to require that existing federal immigration laws be enforced. To this extent, the legislation only seeks to restore the integrity of laws that the federal government has chosen to ignore. Beyond this most certainly lies a broader sense of how America's integrity as a nation state is being violated by successive waves of illegal immigration in the Southwest. Illegal immigrants are not only outsiders, but trespassers who ignore the boundaries that allow America function as a coherent society. The seriousness of the threat calls for a judicious effort that relies upon the integrity of law enforcement officers who can act only upon "reasonable suspicion" that a person is an "alien."
For opponents of the Arizona anti-illegal immigration law, the issues are the integrity of the human person and the human community writ large. As Cardinal Roger Mahoney trenchantly observed, we are saying "no trespassing" and the same time we are saying "help wanted." The perniciousness of the Arizona legislation is not just that it impugns the integrity of the immigrant without listening to his or her story. Some would go further and argue that Arizona's newly minted law has the potential to threaten the integrity of local communities and neighborhoods by creating an atmosphere of distrust. Indeed, for many opponents of Arizona's law, the phrase "reasonable suspicion" is merely a euphemism for racial profiling.
For me as an academic, the most striking aspect of this debate is its irony. One finds people usually suspicious of governmental power willing to arrogate to law enforcement authorities a large amount of discretion. One also finds people who attribute the best motives to illegal immigrants but ascribe the worst motives to Arizona's elected officials and law enforcement personnel.
For me as a Christian, I do believe very strongly that American affluence imposes special responsibilities on all of us. These responsibilities are particularly pronounced now when we Americans are feeling particularly anxious about our national future. The temptation for all of us in this context is to vent our anxiety by identifying "others" of a particular group or class as responsible for our problems.
The difficulty is that it is easy to say that the basis of American integrity is its openness to the immigrant without serious reflection on the practical difficulties of accommodating a large range of immigrant populations within particular local polities. While my opposition to the Arizona law was visceral and immediate, I must admit that there is a common sense quality to the argument that there are laws regarding immigration which exist for a reason and should be enforced. The contribution of Christians to this debate lies not just in a seemingly idealistic understanding of human community beyond national boundaries. Instead, perhaps Christians can emphasize that we cannot have a substantive national discussion of immigration if we ignore how integrity often begins with letting go of our all too comfortable portrayals of ourselves in relation to those we perceive as "other."
By
Mathew N. Schmalz
|
May 25, 2010; 2:18 PM ET
| Category:
social justice
Save & Share:
Previous: Bible commands us to welcome the stranger |
Next: Arizona immigration law outlaws faithful acts
Posted by: mono1 | May 28, 2010 12:40 PM
Report Offensive Comment
test
Posted by: mono1 | May 28, 2010 12:27 PM
Report Offensive Comment
As Cardinal Roger Mahoney trenchantly observed, we are saying "no trespassing" and the same time we are saying "help wanted." The perniciousness of the Arizona legislation is not just that it impugns the integrity of the immigrant without listening to his or her story.
-------------------------
Yes, Roger Mahoney is anxious to get more Catholics here, as we all know. However, many
of the rest of us would like an end to pedophilia writ large, underwritten by Mahoney and his fellow "Cardinals." I like to think of Mahoney's subordinate (lest I forget), Fr. O'Grady, a rapist for decades, a raper of an infant. He raped an infant.
WE are all eagerly awaiting Roger Mahoney's incitement. When that occurs, I will have renewed interest in your views.
Consider this: With more immigration, there will be far more Muslims. Check out the MIddle East view of Pope Benedict and the Vatican. In Iran, he's a hot topic.
Posted by: farnaz_mansouri2 | May 26, 2010 10:17 AM
Report Offensive Comment
The comments to this entry are closed.
america founded on laissez faire,laissez pass let them work let them pass
give them 40 acres and a mule and let them grow the land,
that is what america need right now any way,
no joke!
courtsey,
unigrain.com
we feed the world.