MRS > Office of Migration & Refugee Policy > Legalization of Undocumented Immigrants
The United States is home to about 8.5 million undocumented immigrants; roughly 4.7 million of whom – or 55 percent – are from Mexico. Immigrants from other parts of Latin America account for an additional 2 million, or 22 percent, of the total. Many households headed by undocumented immigrants include children who are U.S. citizens. These children suffer from reduced access to public assistance programs and health insurance coverage because of their parents' undocumented status. Moreover, they face either separation from their parents or life in countries they do not know if their parents are placed in deportation proceedings.
Undocumented immigrants have become increasingly integral to the U.S. economy. They comprise over half of the agricultural workforce; have been instrumental in the growth of the textile, apparel, meatpacking and poultry-processing industries; and pay billions of dollars in taxes. The jobs they perform and the taxes they pay into the Social Security trust fund are particularly critical at a time when the "baby boom" generation is beginning to retire, thereby depleting the "native" labor force and straining the nation's retirement system. Undocumented immigrants also send billions of dollars in remittances to their home countries, which is crucial to the promotion of economic development and the maintenance of political stability in Mexico and Central America. Despite the importance of their economic contributions, undocumented immigrants are forced to "live in the shadows" and are subject to abuse and exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous employers who use the threat of deportation to impose illegally low pay and dangerous working conditions.
In February 2000, President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox initiated high-level discussions on immigration and border policies between the U.S. and Mexican governments. As these discussions progressed, a powerful coalition of U.S. labor unions, business associations, immigrant advocates and religious groups emerged in favor of a legalization program for the undocumented. However, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the momentum for legalization lessened considerably as a result of heightened concerns over border security.
The commitment to justice for immigrants was an important aspect of the Jubilee Year of 2000. As an example of how nations might put the "forgiveness and reconciliation" of the Jubilee into practice, Pope John Paul II said that a "significant gesture would certainly be one in which reconciliation, a genuine dimension of the Jubilee, is expressed in a form of amnesty for a broad group of these immigrants who suffer the tragedy of precariousness and uncertainty more than others, namely, illegal immigrants."1
Legalization is a matter of justice. Until authentic human development is achieved in what is now the developing world, individuals will migrate in order to improve their condition. Indeed, those who come to the United States in an undocumented status come largely to seek a better life for themselves and their families, or simply to survive. While the Church does not advocate undocumented immigration into the United States, it affirms "the human dignity of the undocumented who live within our midst and makes every effort to ensure that their basic needs are met and that their human rights are not trampled upon."2
Until such time as the global community effectively addresses the root causes of undocumented migration, individual nations must confront the presence of the undocumented in a manner which upholds the dignity and basic human rights of all immigrants, regardless of their legal status. Legalization provides one method for achieving this goal which benefits both the individual and the larger society. The U.S. Catholic Bishops acknowledge this reality in their November 2000 statement, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity: "We bishops commit ourselves and all the members of our church communities to continue the work of advocacy for laws that respect the human rights of immigrants and preserve the unity of the immigrant family....We join with others of good will in a call for legalization opportunities for the maximum number of undocumented persons, particularly those who have built equities and otherwise contributed to their communities."
On October 10, 2002, Representative Richard Gephardt (D-3rd/MO) introduced H.R. 5600, the Earned Legalization and Family Unification Act of 2002, which would allow undocumented immigrants to legalize their status if they have been in the United States for at least 5 years, been employed for at least 2 years and pass a background check.
- Legalization would preserve family unity and enable the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants to receive the benefits to which they are entitled;
- Legalization would enhance national security by bringing undocumented immigrants "out of the shadows" and enabling the U.S. government to keep better track of who is in the country;
- Legalization would benefit immigrants who are already productive members of U.S. society and therefore would not result in immigrants "stealing" jobs from the native born;
- Legalization would provide legal recognition of the indispensable contributions undocumented immigrants long have made to the United States through their labor, their taxes, their businesses and their buying power;
- Legalization would elevate wages and working conditions for all workers in industries that employ large numbers of immigrants;
- Legalization would promote stability and development in the home countries of undocumented immigrants by maintaining the billions of dollars in remittances they send each year; and
- Legalization would bring U.S. immigration policy in line with U.S. economic policies, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), that encourage migration.
- Write, call or visit your Congressional representatives and urge them to support a legalization program for undocumented immigrants.
- For more information, or to be added to the advocacy list, contact Kevin Appleby at the Office of Migration and Refugee Policy, Migration and Refugee Services, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: (202) 541-3260 / kappleby@usccb.org.
Prepared November 2002 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services
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- Speech of John Paul II to the Fourth World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, October 9, 1998, as reprinted in L'Osservatore Romano, November 4, 1998, N. 44.
- U.S. Bishops' Committee on Migration, One Family Under God, Publication No. 5-270, U.S. Catholic Conference, September 1995, p. 22.