Ireland Supports U.S. Effort for Immigration Reform (LINK)

Late last year, speaking at the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary in New York City, Ireland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Michael Martin, asked those of Irish ancestry in the U.S. to "rally around immigration reform."  With an estimated 50,000 undocumented immigrants from Ireland in the U.S., Mr. Martin noted that "The Irish government has articulated our concerns to Obama himself.  And there's a need for the [Irish] community here to be supportive."  He noted that a large number of the undocumented Irish immigrants are university graduates.  The Irish government is hopeful that reform might take place in the first three months of 2010, and the question of undocumented Irish will be part of a comprehensive review of the immigration system.  For more information about undocumented Irish immigrants, click here:  http://legalizetheirish.org

Virginia Association of Counties Supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform

At the November 2009 meeting of the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo), which represents 95 counties in Virginia, approved a position statement supporting Federal Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  The statement was approved unanimously and will be part of VACo's Legislative Program for 2010.  VACo's mission is to "support county officials and to effectively represent, promote and protect the
interests of counties to better serve all the people of Virginia."  Among other things, VACo is also "an effective force representing local governments at the state and national levels in legislative and regulatory processes."

House Bill for Immigration Reform Introduced by Rep. Gutierrez (LINK)

Yesterday, Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (H.R. 4321), co-sponsored with over 90 other members of the House of Representatives.  (Similar legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Senator Charles Schumer of New York in January.)  In his statement, Rep. Gutierrez noted some key points:

• "This bill is not complicated...It keeps families together, but understands we must secure our borders.  It keeps people working, but understands the needs of our economy.  It gives a pathway to citizenship, but understands that immigrants must learn English, pay taxes and contribute to their communities."
• "The immigrant blame game wants us to forget that immigrants are just people...just people trying to do their best.  But immigrants are different in one important way.  They desperately want something that far too many of us take for granted.  They want to be Americans."
• "In the immigration debate, some things are constant...One is that opponents of immigration reform will use it as a wedge issue and will blame everything from unemployment to rising health care costs on immigrants."

Their Future Is Ours (LINK)

An editorial entitled "Their Future Is Ours" in today's New York Times raises the issue of education for the children of immigrants:

"There are 16 million children in immigrant families in the United States, one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. It’s an old American story made new in the age of globalization, when waves of human displacement in recent decades have led to immigration on a scale not seen since Ellis Island. But a country that has been so good for so long at integrating new Americans is stumbling under the challenge."

Why worry about educating immigrant children?  Today's reality is there are more students in honors programs in China and India than we in the U.S. have students in school.  In a global economy, we simply need every smart, hardworking young person we can educate for the U.S. to compete in the global economy.  Putting up roadblocks to education is putting up roadblocks to America's future success.

For every young entrepreneurial immigrant we block from getting an education and who might have have founded the next Google or Intel (both started by immigrants), we miss opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the U.S. and to sustain our technological leadership in the world.

As the editorial notes, in conclusion:

"This is the great challenge that is forgotten in the heat of the immigration debate. The children of immigrants are Americans. “They” are “us,” a cohort of newcomers who will be filling the demographic void left as the baby boomers start fading away. Their future is our country’s future."

Immigration -- A Perspective from "Down Under" (LINK)

When I first traveled to Australia in the early 1980's, I found immigration here was tightly controlled -- driven by remnants of a "white Australia" policy.  I remember a Greek cab driver in Melbourne I met on my first business trip who said his life was ok here, but he always felt excluded -- an exclusion he expected he wouldn't find in the U.S. (knowing he was talking to an American).

Confirming that, I remember listening to a TV news report on Good Morning Australia about some salami found to have salmonella that had killed a number of people, but the report concluded that there were "no worries" because only Greeks and Italian immigrants ate that type of salami.  Having an Italian surname, I personally found I was treated well if recognized as an American, but much less well if thought to be an Italian.

Today in Australia you definitely see a society somewhat more open to immigrants.  A walk in downtown Sydney includes pedestrian passing of folks who are clearly immigrants -- mostly Asian, which is a source of much of Australia's trade these days -- pretty much all well-dressed business people.  But immigration at lower economic levels and for other ethnic and racial groups is still very limited and very controlled.

On arriving here I learned that a refugee boat headed here with asylum seekers is being blocked by the Australian government in an effort to divert them elsewhere.  The unstated inference being, "we don't want THOSE PEOPLE here."  At my first Sunday here at Mass, the pastor of Villa Maria Church (Fr. Kevin Bates S.M.) spoke eloquently about this fear of immigrants.

"There is a great deal of shouting for joy in the first reading today as God brings  the remnant of Israel, back to their own homeland.  The blind, the lame, women with child and in labour, God will comfort them all as he leads them back home.

   

As we read this, our world is awash with refugees fleeing from various wars in their homelands and from persecution at the hands of governments or other ethnic groups in their homelands.   A small trickle of these people is headed in our direction and we hear the sounds of fear and suspicion on all sides because these people may impact on  the way we are accustomed to living.

   

In the gospel we have the wonderful story of the blind beggar, Bartimaeus who has the courage to call out to Jesus in his need.  Because he is an embarrassment and rejected as an unworthy member of his community, the crowds  try to silence him, but he calls out all the louder. Finally he gets Jesus’ attention and pleads that his eyes may be opened.

  

Immediately his sight returns and he follows Jesus along the road.  In other words, he starts to live in the light of what he now sees.

   

Often when we are confronted with uncomfortable truths, we prefer not to see and we call out like the people in the gospel, trying to silence the desire for clearer sight, in case we happen to see differently and then have to change and respond.  Often when we are confronted with uncomfortable truths, we deny the truth its place and prefer to stay with our blindness, for then we don’t have to respond.

   

Often when we are confronted with the “inconvenient truth” to borrow Al Gore’s film title, we use anger, aggression, name-calling to save ourselves from having to respond.

  

The recent small increase in asylum-seekers looking to come to Australia, is one instance of such an inconvenient truth."

In the up-coming immigration debate, I hope America will meet the expectation of that Greek cab driver of being a country that welcomes the immigrant.

Cardinal Mahony: "Immigrants are us" (LINK)

"Our nation needs an immigration system that upholds the rule of law, responds to our long-term economic need, values family unity, and respects basic human rights.  Now, our immigration system accomplishes none of these goals.  Our democracy was built on the premise that unjust laws can be changed."

"As a citizen and an observer of the law-making process, I believe I can say with confidence that the American public is somewhat disillusioned with the posturing and rhetoric that has become so prominent in our political culture.  This dynamic has been displayed most recently during the national health-care debate, with the subject of immigrants and their eligibility for health-care an ongoing controversy."

For upcoming changes to immigration detention policies, go to: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/us/politics/06detain.html?_r=1&hpw

The History of Immigration: "Immigration Stories, From Shadows to Spotlight" (LINK)

"When we think about illegal immigration, we think about Mexican immigrants, whereas in fact illegal immigration cuts across all immigrant groups," notes University of Minnesota History Professor Erika Lee, author of "At America's Gate: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943."  As described in the above article from the September 30th issue of the New York Times, today's immigration system developed out of a 60 year effort to keep out Chinese immigrants.

In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese-Americans from being naturalized.  Ten years later it was expanded with a requirement that all Chinese-Americans register with the government and prove their legality through the testimony of at least "one white witness."  The article notes that even then many lawyers felt these laws were counter to "the very soul of the Constitution" and so argued before the U. S. Supreme Court.  In 1893, the Supreme Court issued the decision "Fong Yue Ting v. United States" granting the U. S. government sweeping power to deport foreigners as "absolute and unqualified."  These laws were finally repealed when China became an ally in World War II.

The article also tells the story of a young man who came over from China illegally before World War II pretending to be someone else (like an estimated 90% of Chinese immigrants during that time).  After serving in the U. S. Army during World War II and working for most of his life in a family laundry, at age 88 he is proud of his childrens' professional successes (a dentist, a doctor, and the wife of and a noted New York City restaurant interior designer) and of his six multi-ethnic grandchildren.

In sum, the article says, "At a time when debates about immigration often include the claim that 'my relatives came the legal way'...[his daughter notes] 'One's status being legal or illegal, it's two seconds apart at any point.'"