U.S. bishops continue to press Congress on just immigration reform

Published: 2006-06-15

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- U.S. bishops continued to press Congress to legislate comprehensive and humane immigration reform the day before their June meeting opened in Los Angeles. "We urge congressional leaders and the president to seize this historic moment and enact a just and humane immigration measure," said Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino at a June 14 press conference held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the site of the June 15-17 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Congressional conferees need to resolve differences between a Senate bill passed in May that includes many comprehensive reform provisions and a House bill passed in December that focuses only on the enforcement of immigration laws and criminalizes undocumented immigrants and those who assist them. Bishop Barnes, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, observed that the $25 billion spent on border enforcement in the last dozen years has resulted in double the number of undocumented immigrants and the deaths of some 3,000 in the desert. "It is clear that an enforcement-only approach to immigration reform has failed," said the bishop.

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