Network head to speak about immigration

Immigration is a topic Catholics should be concerned about because "we believe in the dignity of each individual. Each of us is called to reach out to people who are different and to learn their stories."

So says Sister Simone Campbell, SSS, executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby based in Washington, D.C.

She will speak March 29, 1-4 p.m., at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Latham during "Broadening Our Perspectives on Immigration: Global, National and Local Immigration Realities."

Global issue

Immigration, Sister Simone said, is a complex global issue.

"Too often, we think it's a U.S. issue," she said. "It's international. We are living in a globalized world in which the free-market efforts of the developed world are encouraging the movement of capital and people to where there are jobs."

She encourages Catholics to lobby Congress for immigration reform because "we need a system that works and works fairly" by recognizing the dignity of the individual person and supporting families.

Currently, she said, "we have an ancient system for a modern reality."

Effect on children

Sister Simone shared three scenarios of how children are hurt by current immigration laws:

* Children born in the United States are U.S. citizens. In some cases, when their parents have overstayed a visa, the parents and non-citizen children are deported, leaving the children born in the U.S. alone.

* Children who come legally to the U.S. when they are very young grow up in this country. They can find themselves deported to their country of origin, where they haven't been since infancy.

* Fathers often sacrifice and leave their families to work in the U.S., sending money home but not getting the opportunity to see their children.

Iraq crisis

Having traveled earlier this year to Iraq, Sister Simone is concerned about refugees from there. She is most concerned about widows and orphans who have been displaced because of the war.

"Catholics need to tell the government that we are willing to welcome Iraqi refugees," she said. "Eighteen to 20 percent of the Iraqi population has been displaced. We should respond to the most vulnerable."

In recent testimony to Congress, she recommended that the State Department meet its goal of resettling 12,000 Iraqi refugees and consider the possibility of allocating more resources to expedite their processing.

'Punitive bills'

The government is not ignoring immigration issues, Sister Simone said. Instead, political leaders are proposing ways to reduce immigration.

"Recently, 15 punitive bills were introduced in the Senate that would further militarize the border and make English the national language, among other things," she said. "This piecemeal and fragmented approach to immigration will not work and is not good for our country."

(The immigration presentation will include a panel of respondents to Sister Simone's talk, including Fred Boehrer of Albany Catholic Worker. For more information, call 783-3500. The event is sponsored by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the Albany diocesan Commission on Peace and Justice, and Catholic Charities of the Albany Diocese.)

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