Bishop sees education as part of effort to craft immigration reform

Published: 2008-07-02

SALT LAKE CITY (CNS) -- Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City said he doesn't expect any comprehensive immigration reform to occur in the United States until after the 2008 presidential election and not even for some time after that. "It takes time to educate people about the challenges and complicated issues that surround immigration, migration and refugee needs," he told the Intermountain Catholic, his diocese's newspaper. "We need to develop ways ... to help immigrants who are facing life and death situations. And we have to find ways to approach and eliminate the organized criminal aspects that make migration even more dangerous than it is," he said. Bishop Wester made the comments in an interview about his participation in a June 16-18 meeting of bishops from the United States, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. They met in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. The other U.S. bishop who attended was Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif.

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