On Jan. 14, the Church celebrated the 93rd World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The Church’s concern for immigrants, migrants and refugees is thus not new. Of course, this echoes the long biblical tradition of concern for society’s most vulnerable people and the explicit injunction to care for “the immigrant, the widow and the orphan.” Jesus explicitly identifies himself with these and others in an expanded list of vulnerable people. He concludes: “As long as you did it for one of these least ones you did it for me.” (Mt 25:40)

Pope Benedict XVI’s message this year focused on “The Migrant Family.” He concludes: “The words of the apostle Paul ‘Caritas Christi urget nos’ (2 Cor 5:14), urge us to give ourselves preferentially to our brothers and sisters who are most in need.” But how might this influence us in regards to the current discussion and pending legislation around the immigration issue?

As you know, the Church in the United States has taken center stage in the debate over how to reform the U.S. immigration system. The Church does not support illegal migration. Instead, it supports comprehensive reform, including anti-poverty measures to allow would-be migrants to remain in their countries of birth, expanded avenues of legal migration to the United States, and a way for undocumented persons to “earn” legal status through their labor, good character, and payment of a fine. The Church holds that those fleeing persecution and inhuman poverty have a right to migrate, and that all of us have a responsibility to welcome newcomers as our “brothers and sisters.”

How can we meet this Gospel imperative? In the nation’s last era of great migration, from roughly 1890 to 1920, the Church responded to the needs of its newest members by establishing or expanding all of its defining institutions, including charities, parishes, schools, hospitals, religious communities, and fraternal and sororal groups. We face a similar challenge today and must be equally responsive. As the U.S. and Mexican bishops state in a joint pastoral statement, “Strangers No Longer”: “Faith in the presence of Christ in the migrant leads to a conversion of mind and heart, which leads to a renewed spirit of communion and to the building of structures of solidarity to accompany the migrant.” One of the Church’s principal “structures of solidarity” with migrants today is its network of charitable legal programs which are linked nationally to the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC).

More than 160 dioceses now offer legal services to immigrants. The Diocese of Sacramento does so through the immigration program of Catholic Charities in Sacramento and the Catholic Social Service immigration program in Vallejo. They help families to reunify, persons at risk of violence to secure protection, lawful permanent residents to become citizens, and qualifying immigrants to work. Through its Citizenship Project, North Valley Sponsoring Committee works with immigrants in several parishes to prepare to become citizens. They then train the new citizens to become involved as leaders in their communities by voting and working on issues that affect their lives. In addition, Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO) affiliate organizations support immigration reform through en extensive advocacy effort. Catholic immigration programs, which serve more than 400,000 newcomers each year, make up the nation’s largest network of charitable legal programs.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has referred to CLINIC as “one of the Church’s best kept secrets.” CLINIC advocates on behalf of low income and at-risk immigrants on a national level, and provides local immigration programs with training and technical support. Recently CLINIC launched a project to prepare for anticipated legislation that could provide legal status to a significant percentage of the nation’s 12 million undocumented residents. As with the last legalization program in the 1980s, the Church’s deep connections with immigrant communities will make it a central resource for immigrants in need of assistance.

In order for a program of this magnitude to succeed, the Church must mobilize all of its resources. Immigrants who do not receive quality information and services may fall victim to predatory immigration service, or “notarios.” During the last legalization program, many fly-by-night offices charged excessive fees for shoddy services that sometimes actually prevented their clients from gaining legal status. CLINIC’s legalization Web page (www.cliniclegal.org/Legalization.html) offers a useful collection of resources for immigration programs, parishes and immigrant communities. It features instructions, articles, reports, guides, training slides, presentations, and fliers.

Our diocesan immigration programs and CLINIC are doing their best to live up to the demands of Catholic social teaching. As U.S. and Mexican bishops jointly stated: “We judge ourselves as a community of faith by the way we treat the most vulnerable among us.” Assisting newcomers to obtain legal status, a pre-condition to full membership in our nation, is an important expression of this standard.

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