WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Texas Catholic bishops urged immigration reform, saying it is necessary to prevent what happened to 53 migrants discovered dead and dying inside a trailer June 27 from happening again.
Reminding others to reflect on the incident, they focused on defending the sacredness of every life. In a YouTube video posted July 15, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth and Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio, on behalf of the Texas Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops, reminded Catholics “to never forget the sacredness of all human life in light of all this.” Cardinal DiNardo recalled Pope Francis’ lament, the “throwaway culture” the pope warns against, which leads humanity to discard God’s creation, including people. “This senseless loss of life should shock and sadden us as we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, ” said Cardinal DiNardo in the video. “We cannot ignore those most vulnerable among us who at times become victims of this throwaway culture and only seek a better life for themselves and their families.” He commended the souls of the men and women who died near San Antonio after being smuggled into the U.S. in the part of a semitrailer reserved for cargo, not people. They were traveling without air conditioning or ventilation in temperatures that surpassed 100 degrees. It’s not clear how long they had been inside the trailer. Authorities said the man identified as the truck driver, Homero Zamorano Jr., fled the scene, leaving the migrants, which included minors, dead and dying. He has been apprehended and charged with alien smuggling resulting in death. Three others also have been arrested in connection with the incident. “The exploitation of the poor and in particular of migrants who flee dramatic situations in search of opportunities and hope is particularly grave,” said Archbishop García-Siller in the video. Immigrant advocates head to a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday in hopes of saving an Obama-era program that prevents the deportation of thousands of people brought into the U.S. as children.
A federal judge in Texas last year declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program illegal — although he agreed to leave the program intact for those already benefitting from it while his order is appealed. DACA proponents planned an early morning vigil ahead of arguments at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Justice Department is defending the program, allied with the state of New Jersey, advocacy organizations such as the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund and a coalition of dozens of powerful corporations — including Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft — which argue that DACA recipients are “employees, consumers and job creators.” Texas, the lead plaintiff with eight other Republican-leaning states, argues that DACA was enacted without going through proper legal and administrative procedures, including public notice and comment periods. Additionally, the states argue that they are harmed financially by allowing immigrants to remain in the country illegally. “DACA imposes classic pocketbook injuries on the States through social services, healthcare, and education costs,” Texas attorneys argued in a brief, estimating that the state spends tens of millions of dollars on Medicaid services on those in the country illegally. DACA proponents argue the state hasn't proven that ending the program would decrease its costs. They argue that DACA is a policy that falls within federal authorities' power to decide how best to spend finite enforcement resources and that Texas diminished its claims of financial injury by waiting six years to challenge the program. They also argue the state ignores evidence that DACA recipients decrease Texas' costs because many of them hold jobs with health insurance benefits and many own homes and pay property taxes that support schools. Katie Britt won the Alabama GOP Senate primary runoff last night, and one of the main issues she ran on was immigration. Britt has endorsed Senator Tom Cotton’s 2017 RAISE Act, which was a plan to decrease legal immigration by 50 percent. Britt is not the only Republican Senate candidate to come out in favor of stricter immigration policies. Blake Masters, running for the GOP nomination in the Arizona Senate race, wants to triple the size of the Border Patrol, wants to finish the border wall, and opposes all amnesty for illegal aliens. While he has espoused liberal immigration policies in the past, he now pledges to “end illegal immigration.”
The winner of the Ohio GOP Senate primary, J. D. Vance, is focusing part of his campaign on illegal immigration, promising changes similar to Masters’s. Yet Vance goes a step further, seeking to overhaul the current legal immigration system: “Millions of people want to come here, and we should only allow them if they contribute something meaningful to our country.” Vance wants to curb the number of legal immigrants coming into the country, prioritizing skilled immigrants. In one of his primary-campaign ads, called, “Are You a Racist?,” Vance said, “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans, with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.” These Republicans clearly believe immigration is an issue that can drive voters to the polls, even in an election year dominated by inflation and other economic concerns. The RAISE Act, endorsed by Katie Britt, was a plan pushed by Senator Cotton and former Georgia senator David Perdue in 2017. The bill, reintroduced in 2019 by Cotton and Perdue as well as Senator Josh Hawley (R, Mo.), was pitched as a way to boost job and wage growth, end chain migration, and welcome the highest-skilled immigrants to the country. The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act would cut the number of green cards issued on an annual basis from 1 million to 500,000. Until recently, Republicans generally maintained a position on immigration that illegal immigration needs to be halted, but legal immigration is good and should be encouraged. And after Mitt Romney lost the presidential election to Barack Obama in 2012, Republicans believed that in order to cater to the Hispanic vote, they would have to move their immigration stance to the left. Some, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), endorsed amnesty for some illegal immigrants. Even the staunchly pro-Trump Fox host Sean Hannity suggested in 2012 that some law-abiding illegal immigrants should be granted citizenship. Donald Trump’s clinching of the nomination in 2016 and the ascent of populism within the GOP pushed immigration restrictionism to the forefront of Republican politics. Trump campaigned on building a wall on the southern border and deporting illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration, Trump maintained, undermines the American workforce by taking American jobs and lowering wages for native-born Americans. |