MRS > Migration Policy and Public Affair Office > The Safe, Orderly, Legal Visas Enhancement Act of 2004
Statement of Most Reverend Thomas G. Wenski
Coadjutor Bishop of Orlando
Chairman, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’
Committee on Migration
May 4, 2004
On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s Committee on Migration, I offer my support for the Safe, Orderly, Legal Visas Enhancement Act of 2004, introduced today by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Representatives Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois). The legislation seeks to reform, in a comprehensive manner, U.S. immigration policy.
In January of 2003, the U.S. and Mexican Catholic bishops issued a joint pastoral statement entitled Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope. In that letter, the bishops of both nations called for a comprehensive reform of U.S. immigration policy. Specifically, we called for a broad-based legalization of the undocumented in this nation and reform of the family-based and employment-based legal immigration systems.
The SOLVE Act of 2004 reforms these crucial areas of our immigration system in a way that protects the rights of U.S. and foreign workers; promotes family unity; and grants migrant workers and their families in the United States the opportunity to become permanent residents, and, if they so choose, U.S. citizens.
As pastors, the U.S. bishops witness the human consequences of a broken immigration system in our dioceses, parishes, and social service programs across the nation. We witness almost daily the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers who seek to support themselves and their families; the discord in local communities, especially along our southern border, which are impacted by immigration; and, most disturbingly, the deaths of migrants, including women and children, in remote areas of the American Southwest.
We believe the legislation introduced today will help create legal avenues for migrants to come and work and join their family members in the United States in a safe, legal, orderly, and dignified manner. It will significantly repair an immigration system which is inadequate to meet the migration flows of the twenty-first century and which all too often undermines the basic rights and dignity of the human person.
We commend the sponsors for the introduction of this proposal. We also commend President Bush and others of our elected officials for introducing their own proposals to reform U.S. immigration policy. We look forward to working with President Bush and members of Congress in the days and months ahead to enact legislation which provides a measure of justice to the migrant while also serving the common good of all.