USCCB endorces immigration reform bill

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USCCB endorses immigration reform bill
WASHINGTON (May 4, 2004)—Legislation introduced today "will help create legal avenues for migrants to come and work and join their family members in the United States in a safe, legal, orderly, and dignified manner," according to the chairman of the bishops' Migration Committee, who offered his endorsement of the bill.

Coadjutor Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando (FL) said the legislation "will significantly repair an immigration system inadequate to meet the migration flows of the twenty-first century and which all too often undermines the basic rights and dignity of the human person."

The Safe, Orderly, Legal Visas Enhancement (SOLVE) Act of 2004 is intended to protect the rights of U.S. and foreign workers; promote family unity; and grant migrant workers and their families in the United States the opportunity to become permanent residents or U.S. citizens. It is sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Rep. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).

Wenski said the bishops support the legislation because "we witness, almost daily, the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers …, the discord in local communities…impacted by immigration, and, most disturbingly, the deaths of migrants, including women and children, in remote areas of the American Southwest."

In January 2003, the U.S. and Mexican bishops called for comprehensive immigration reform in an historic joint pastoral letter, Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope. Bishop Wenski said the SOLVE Act meets all the criteria spelled out by the bishops in that document.

"We look forward to working with President Bush and members of Congress in the days and months ahead to enact legislation which provides a measure of justice to the migrant while also serving the common good of all," Bishop Wenski said.

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