Church organizations launch campaign to aid immigrants

Published: 2005-05-10

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Citing reasons as broad as Catholic teaching about the right to migrate to improve one's life and as narrow as one Guyana emigrant's need to support his family, more than a dozen church organizations and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops May 10 launched a campaign called Justice for Immigrants. The program is intended to educate the public, and Catholics in particular, about how immigration and immigrants benefit the nation; to improve public opinion about the contributions of immigrants; to advocate for changes in immigration laws and policies; and to organize networks that assist immigrants with legal problems. Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, a consultant to the USCCB's Committee on Migration, said at a press conference announcing the campaign that the bishops "have grown increasingly disturbed by the current public discourse surrounding immigrants, in which newcomers are characterized as a threat to our nation and not a benefit." He said, "Anti-immigrant fervor on TV and radio shows, citizens attempting to enforce immigration laws, and, most disturbingly, the enactment of restrictive immigration laws are evidence of this negative public environment."

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