As we know, the recent national debate over immigration reform did not go well. It was a debate which “polarized our people, paralyzed the Congress, and failed our nation”; a debate in which “anger trumped wisdom, myths overwhelmed facts, and slogans made solutions impossible.” I endorse the thoughts of Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, writing for the U.S. bishops’ Domestic Policy Committee for Labor Day 2007. As a church, we must keep looking for a way “to re-start the discussion, to re-engage the hard issues, to search for practical and realistic solutions to one of the most serious and complicated issues we face.”

Bishop DiMarzio suggests four starting points for a new and better national immigration discussion and resulting policy. First, reality. We need to focus on the reality of the issue, but not through the eyes of fear, ideology or wishful thinking. It has been said that “we’re entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts.” The inescapable facts are that immigrants have been coming to our nation from places of poverty, violence and oppression for years. They come because they find work here that allows them to offer some hope and dignity to their families; work that is a contribution to our society, on which our economy and communities depend. They have been bussing our dishes, picking our vegetables, cleaning our offices and homes, and caring for our children for years.

Second, civility. In discussions searching for a reformed immigration policy, all should temper passion and strong convictions with respect for different points of view. Civility was often lacking in the recent debate. Acknowledgment of “legitimate concerns about protecting our borders, curbing the flow of unlawful immigration, the potential displacement of native workers, and the possibility of exploitation within guest worker programs should not encourage ethnic hostility, discrimination and the use of demeaning stereotypes.”

Third, morality. Fundamental moral principles should inform our approach to immigration. “Human dignity is a gift from God, not a status to be earned. The right to work, decent wages, safe working conditions, and to have a voice in decisions do not depend on where one is born or when one came to our nation or the documents one possesses. Protecting family values should not depend on a family’s nationality or immigration status. Policies and procedures such as workplace raids which pull families apart should be resisted. The measure of immigration reform is not how it touches the secure and powerful, but the weak and vulnerable.”

Fourth, consistency. Immigration reform is a national need which, by not being resolved at the federal level, is leading to a “patchwork of conflicting policies and punitive measures” enacted to resolve local issues but further inflaming the divisions that make real progress more difficult.

Bishop DiMarzio concludes: “We need a different debate, a constructive discussion that neither diminishes our nation nor divides our people, but achieves realistic, practical, and principled steps towards reform. A national discussion that is based on reality, civility, morality, and consistency can lay the groundwork for real progress.”

In my column for Labor Day 2006, I suggested that we might look to our two diocesan patrons, St. Patrick, the immigrant to Ireland, and the Blessed Mother under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Let us call upon them again, to teach us how we should respond and to intercede for us so that we might get the right focus on this immensely complex issue of immigration.

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