I once had a debate of sorts with a science professor from Alberta, Canada on the adamant opposition of the Church to the use of condoms. He recognized that the Church was against any sexual contact outside of marriage, yet he stressed that fornication is a fact of life, it is something that people are just always going to do and that should be taken into account. He felt, effectively, that the Church should say, "don't have sex before you get married, but if you do, be sure to use a condom so that you don't pass on disease". I could see the logic to his argument, yet I told him, just speaking for myself, that the Church could never do that because it would be breaking an often forgotten piece of Biblical advice which says, "make no provision for failure". If the Church were to take his advice people would naturally think that the commandment against fornication was not all that serious and fornication would only increase -and with it disease and unwanted pregnancies. It would be no different, in my mind, to that professor telling his students not to cheat -it can mean the ruin of your academic career; but that since students have always cheated and probably always will, if you do decide to cheat he should show them a method to do so that would ensure they get away with it. Nonsense obviously but it is sauce for the goose as I see it.
This is what I see in the bishops response to illegal immigration: they are making provision for failure. They say they are against illegal immigration, but claim that we cannot morally stop it and so we should take away any punishment for it and give amnesty to those who have broken the law. In my view, that sends a very mixed message and seems rather out of place. Growing up, I never saw it as a moral requirement to let those who enter the country illegally continue on their way. Undocumented immigrants (as they prefer to be called) were almost never turned away at the Crisp ranch. We would give them a hot meal, something to drink and some travelling food and water to take with them and then send them on their way. However, we would also almost always call the Border Patrol and report them. Some were picked up, and some got away, but I was told growing up that it is our Christian duty to help any in need and that it was also our duty as law abiding citizens to report criminal activity to the authorities. Most of our ranch hands over the years have come from Mexico but they were all here legally and that was a position my father would never compromise both because he knew it would mean trouble for him were he caught but also because he would not condone illegal activity.
The bill being pushed through Congress right now is effectively a new amnesty. Of course, our Glorious Leader President Bush says it is not and that undocumented immigrants will have to pay a fine and go through all sorts of legal obstacles to get this amnesty that he says is not amnesty. It will give them legal status, the issue will be resolved and everyone will be happy. With all due respect, I say hogwash! If it means paying a fine, doing paperwork, dealing with government agencies and the like I would bet the farm that most undocumented immigrants simply won't do it or will drop out of the process midstream and we will all be right back where we started minus alot of tax dollars. There is already a legal way to enter the country and these people choose not to do it but to take the illegal route which is certainly quicker and easier, after all, even if you are captured you are simply returned to Mexico and you can try it again the next week. All this bill will do, I am convinced, is cost alot of money, clog up the government pipes and encourage even more illegal immigration just as the last amnesty bill did. Furthermore, for those who do follow through, once they become legal they will have to be paid minimum wage, they can join unions and they will be entitled to employee benefits which will mean that they will no longer be as attractive to greedy business owners who will then simply hire fresh undocumented immigrants to take their place. In short, things will only get worse and nothing will get better.
A week or two ago on "Larry King Live" this issue was being discussed and I was surprised to hear a shred of truth dropped into the discussion coming from, of all places, actor Edward James Olmos who used to be on Miami Vice. He said that the root of illegal immigration problem resides in Mexico and it will never be changed until it is solved there (though rest assured he is on the side of the undocumented immigrants). This is a little bit of obvious truth that seldom sees the light of day in this debate. Why do so many Mexicans come to the United States illegally? In fact, why do most Mexicans say they would rather live in the United States than in Mexico? Because life in Mexico is pretty bad for most people whereas, despite all the whining liberals do, life in the United States is pretty good for most people. It is that simple. Why try to make your country better when you can swim a river and go where things are already alot better? I live on the Mexican border and at times I am amazed Mexico has any people left there at all. You also have to sympathize with Mexicans who get fed up with the situation. After all, they have been told that socialism, robbing the rich and giving to the poor and liberal revolutions are the keys to better living and they have had more revolutions than I care to list and yet things only seem to get worse for them. I would suggest they look into the traditional definition of insanity.
Mexico, after all, was not always this way. In fact, one could say that Mexico should be doing much better than we are. They had a head start on the rest of North America, they had printing presses, hospitals and universities long before we did. In fact, back in the days before the Texas War for Independence it was Mexico that was trying to keep "undocumented immigrants" from the United States out of their country. However, I think a better example can be found without going back quite that far. During the few years of the Emperor Maximilian there were actually immigrants coming from Europe and the rest of North America to Mexico. There have always been opportunities in Mexico and with Maximilian people thought there would at last be a stable and fair government. Of course, many who came did so because of the foreign military forces who came to help protect the imperial couple; mostly Austrians and Belgians. However, thousands of Americans, former Confederates, also came to Mexico to set up business and establish colonies under the friendly government of Emperor Maximilian. All of these people could have been a great help to the future of Mexico as they all began to prosper very quickly. However, as soon as Emperor Maximilian was overthrown they had to flee to the United States in the face of a government that was very unfriendly as to their presence in Mexico and which recognized none of the land grants signed by Maximilian.
Living where I do I have seen undocumented immigrants who have driven trucks through fences while trying to escape the Border Patrol and inside there are holy cards, small plastic statues and rosaries. There are also those who vandalize homes, break in and steal valuables (not always food) and who have killed people and raped people. They are not all bad of course but they are also not all good. Furthermore, I would think that the bishops should take a broader view of the spiritual impact of illegal immigration because it is not a one way street. They seem to count only on the Catholicism of Mexicans influencing the United States, but the bad aspects of our culture also influence them. In the old days in my area virtually every Mexican was Catholic. Today there are a multitude of independent Protestant churches filled with people who used to be Catholics but who have since left the Church when presented with other options. It is also a sad fact that in Texas I know at least there are more abortions performed in the predominately Catholic, which are Mexican, areas than the Protestant areas. Furthermore, just looking at the spiritual side of things, I have never seen Catholic Mexicans trying to convert American Protestants but I see local Protestant churches busy all year sending missionary groups to Mexico and across Latin America to convert Catholics to Protestantism. In short, I think too many people are looking at the spiritual side of this issue through rose-colored glasses.
There is, of course, a moral obligation to help those in need and the Mexican people are certainly in a great deal of need. However, I do not think they are going to be helped by draining the population of Mexico to the United States which is what any amnesty bill supports. Most Mexican politicians support it of course because they are looking out only for their own interests and the short term benefit of fewer poor people in their own countries to give them problems. To solve the Mexican immigration problem the problem of Mexico is what needs to be solved. Yet, here again we run into problems. At the end of the Mexican-American War, when U.S. troops were marching down the streets of Mexico City, there was actually talk among some Mexicans of the country being better off if the U.S. would just annex the whole thing. Most Mexicans recoil from this prospect. They are a proud people and adamantly oppose the United States "taking over" Mexico, yet these same people would rather live in the United States because life here is so much better than life in Mexico. With the help of Emperor Maximilian and the French Foreign Legion there was a brief period of good government in Mexico but of course Maximilian ended up being shot for his trouble. Trying to solve the problem of fixing Mexico from the outside is obviously no easy thing to do.
I would say that what is most needed is more action on the part of the Mexican bishops rather than the American ones and a total re-evangelization of the country, politically and spiritually. It often seems that there is no one more proud of Mexico than Mexicans who live in America. Mexico needs more patriotism of the real kind, not the cosmetic kind represented by giant flags. They need fewer "summer soldiers and sunshine patriots" to use the words of Thomas Paine and more of the patriots who will endure hardship and suffering to make their country better rather than abandoning it for another. Mexico needs a new spirit that will unite the public to stop government corruption, awaken them to the folly of socialism and revive an adoration of the Catholic roots of their country, going back even to pre-independence when Mexico was New Spain and the most advanced, prosperous and powerful part of North America. They need a government that will take full responsibility for their people rather than trying to push them into another country. Mexico, like most of Latin America, has all of the resources needed to be a paradise but they need to look back at the better periods of their history and try to understand what they were doing then and why was it that during certain periods, not only were Mexicans not leaving the country by the millions, but foreign people were moving into Mexico. They need to take a long, hard look at the liberal turn the country took after the death of Emperor Maximilian, see where they went wrong and where they can go right. Until that happens, any legislation the United States passes will only be a case of treating the symptoms rather than curing the illness.
