RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER

May 22, 2007

Raleigh bishop backs bill

Burbidge urges Catholics to push for immigration reform

Kristin Collins, Staff Writer

RALEIGH - Illegal immigrants gained a strong voice of support Monday from the bishop of Raleigh's Catholic diocese.

As the U.S. Senate began negotiations on a proposal for immigration reform, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge held a news conference urging Catholics to push for a bill that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Backed by several priests and Hispanic leaders, Burbidge said that those who live in dangerous or impoverished countries have a right to immigrate.

"Work that provides a just living wage is a basic human need," said Burbidge, whose diocese includes 54 counties in the eastern half North Carolina. "The history of the United States is filled with example after example of immigrants coming to American shores for these reasons."

Burbidge and other church leaders said Congress must pass immigration reform this year, rather than leave millions of illegal immigrants vulnerable and invisible. Last year, Congress failed to agree on a new immigration policy.

They asked Catholics in the diocese, who number 207,000, to see immigrants, legal or illegal, as people with basic rights to dignity and jobs.

"Why would a person leave their native country to live as a stranger in a foreign land?" asked Father Patrick Keane.

Keane, the church's vicar for Hispanics who works with the poor in El Salvador, said desperate conditions force most immigrants from their homelands. And he said U.S. consumers, by demanding cheap goods and controlling a large portion of the world's economy, are partly to blame for the economic woes of people in Latin America. Now, Keane said, the United States has an obligation to help.

The bishop outlined several elements that he said were key to immigration reform.

He said the nation needs a system that provides a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, creates a new guest worker program, emphasizes family unity, provides legal rights for the undocumented and a recognizes the economic and social conditions that drive people to the United States.

Burbidge called the Senate proposal released last week "a good beginning." That plan allows undocumented workers to apply for legal status while at the same time intensifying border security.

Burbidge said he also had concerns about the plan.

He said he opposed a provision that would make it more difficult for immigrants to bring their families to the United States. He also said the proposed guest worker program denies workers the ability to become citizens and leaves them with few rights.

"Jesus himself was a refugee as a child," Burbidge said. "He taught us to welcome the stranger."