Immigration 

Catholic Social Teaching on immigration centers two rights and one responsibility: All people have the to migrate to sustain their lives and their families. Nations have the right to regulate movement across their borders. These, at times, conflicting rights are tempered by the greater responsibility of nations to regulate their borders with justice and mercy. This provides a helpful frame to explore why people leave their homes and everything they have known, the often violent and exploitative receptions migrants receive from wealthier nations, and what a just response from wealthy nations such as the United States could look like.    

We draw upon the Biblical tradition of welcoming the stranger with hospitality to ground our analysis. That tradition recognizes the unique vulnerabilities immigrants often face in their host countries. Depending on their economic standing, immigrants may have to leave behind the things that give people comfort and lend meaning to our lives: Family, friends, religious and civic communities, linguistic practices, even a firm grasp on local conventions that give one a sense of belonging. Immigration, therefore, necessitates trauma for many even when they are fleeing to better conditions.     

Globally, some of the major drivers of forced migration are wars and other forms of violence, climate change, economic insecurity, and political instability. Contrary to popular belief, other developing countries receive at least as many immigrants as wealthy counties do. For instance, one in three residents of Jordan and Lebanon are now migrants, and there are 4.1 million refugees in Turkey, the latter of which acts as a border between Syrian refugees fleeing their civil war and continental Europe.    

Mexico plays a similar function for the United States under President Trump’s so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy. Under the program, asylum seekers who attempt to enter the United States from the southern border must make their claim at an official port of entry, and then return to a Mexican border town while they wait to be seen by a judge. According to one study, 0.1% of asylum seekers affected by the policy – or 11/47,000 – were granted asylum. This, in conjunction with the low number of cases judged daily, creates a massive backlog of asylum seekers along the border. It is one of several policies that have endangered asylees, separated families, and further criminalized the human right to migrate.   

Once in country, however, immigrants with precarious documentation statuses face economic exploitation from employers and landlords due to the threat of detention and deportation. Incorporate: A minority of immigrants in detention have a criminal record, and even fewer have been convicted of serious offenses. Both historically and in the present-day, the criminalization of immigrant populations has functioned to maintain a cheap, disposable workforce. Poor people of all demographics are subject to various forms of wage theft from employers, but undocumented workers are especially vulnerable due to the threat of immigration retaliation if they report. A 2009 study found that 37% of undocumented workers surveyed were victims of minimum wage violations the week before, compared to 24% of immigrant workers, and 16% of citizen workers.  Here a sense of the common good would not only benefit immigrant workers, but citizen workers, as well. All workers are connected on the market. The super-exploitation of immigrant workers drives down the bargaining power of low-wage citizen workers. Solidarity is in everyone’s self-interest.

Policy Solutions

• A complete end to the detention of undocumented immigrants on the basis of their immigration status. By the end of 2019, there were about 50,000 immigrants held in prisons and jails in the United States, about 2/3 of whom have never had a criminal conviction. Thousands of children detained with their parents are among this population.    
• The liberalization of family-based immigration policies. Currently, it can take years for families to be legally reunited in the U.S. Changes should be made to increase the availability of family visas and to reduce the wait time for family reunification.    
• A clear path to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented residents.    
• As the world’s lone superpower, the US must commit to leading efforts to address the macro causes of human migration, rather than contribute to them. These include climate change, armed conflict, and economic and political instability. Our government spurs migration when it does things such as condition aid on undermining local agricultural producers in favor of US corporate farmers, as we did in El Salvador in 2014.

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