Immigration bill provisions analyzed by bishops' committee chairman

Published: 2006-04-04

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The immigration bill approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee March 27 addresses many of the Catholic Church's concerns, although it also needs work, according to statements from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other church representatives. An April 3 letter to senators from Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, Calif., chairman of the bishops' Committee on Migration, detailed what legislative proposals for immigration the bishops support and which ones they oppose. The letter lauded provisions of the bill approved by the Judiciary Committee that would allow the 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants the chance to legalize their status, establish a temporary worker program and reorganize legal immigration procedures to reduce the backlog of applications for family reunification visas. Bishop Barnes praised the committee bill for including legislation that would allow several hundred thousand agricultural workers already in the United States to legalize their status and seek permanent residency visas and that would create a way for students brought illegally to the United States by their parents to legalize their own status while getting a college education at in-state resident rates.

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