Immigrant issue has human face

Let’s remember the challenges facing immigrant families. As we approach Mother’s Day, we should reflect on the mothers who have come to this country to make a better life for their families. The Yuma-area faith community has long been a champion of immigrant rights, family reunification and the need for family immigration as a part of comprehensive immigration reform. Our diverse faith traditions teach us to welcome our brothers and sisters with love and compassion.

We advocate for comprehensive immigration reform because each day in our congregations, service programs, health care facilities and schools we witness the human consequences of a broken system.

We see and hear the suffering of immigrant families who have lost loved ones to death in the desert or immigrants themselves who have experienced exploitation in the workplace or abuse at the hands of unscrupulous smugglers and others. In our view, changes to the U.S. legal immigration system would help put an end to this suffering, which offends the dignity of all human beings.

Traditionally, immigration laws have upheld the value of family and placed priority on keeping families united. In our country today, however, there are hundreds of immigrant families that have been separated for an average of six to eight years.

Many of these families have been separated due to two types of backlogs, an administrative backlog for U.S. citizenship because immigration services do not have enough resources to handle the workload, and also a visa backlog due to the limited number of visas that allow immigrants to enter our country.

Due to these backlogs, immigrants often have had to face the hard choice of being separated from family members for long periods of time, or entering illegally to be with their loved ones. For example, a wife, husband or child of a U.S. lawful permanent resident is only now receiving a visa after a five-year wait.

While we do not condone breaking of the law, we must recognize that the system is broken and current law does not reflect principles that create healthy societies, like the unity of the family. Allowing immigrant families to be reunited with their loved ones allows those who work in our country to be more productive members of our society while also contributing to the overall stability of our communities.

Reforming the immigration system to address this reality would allow the U.S. government to focus its enforcement efforts on real threats that face all Americans, citizens and immigrants alike.

We urge our elected officials to conduct the immigration reform debate in a civil and respectful manner. A polarized process that is lacking in civility would hinder deliberative discourse and not serve the best interests of our nation.

The vast majority of Americans support immigration reform with a path to citizenship. As faith-based leaders and organizations here, we call attention to the moral dimensions of public policy and pursue policies that uphold the human dignity of each person, all of whom are made in the image of God.

We engage the immigration issue with the goal of fashioning an immigration system that facilitates legal status and family unity in the interest of serving the God-given dignity and rights of every individual.

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Msgr. Richard O’Keeffe is co-chair of the Yuma County Interfaith Sponsoring Committee, a coalition of faith-based groups and individuals.