Is it selfish to disagree with us? de facto Open borders policy and mass illegal immigration? Is it selfish to oppose advanced immigration, even skilled immigration? The liberal left's message says yes to everything, but if we pay attention to all the moral issues of immigration, it becomes clear that charity towards our fellow citizens and global neighbors demands a significant change in our current approach. You can see that there are.
It is not selfish to say that current policies are destructive to our country. Many residents of blue states are becoming more aware of the reality that the hefty immigration costs will be borne by residents as well as residents of places like El Paso, Texas. they.
Portions of Chicago's O'Hare Airport were shut down last week to house undocumented immigrants. Brooklyn's James Madison High School is closed and students were told they can access their teachers online as the city shelters about 2,000 undocumented immigrants from the winter cold. Despite the migrants being removed, schools remained closed last Thursday and the school's Winter Wonderland dance was “indefinitely postponed”.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that “faith-based” organizations and then private citizens would be “suffering right now due to economic hardship” and “maybe have spare rooms to rent.” He announced that he would seek cooperation. Massachusetts Governor Kim Driscoll also urged residents to welcome “immigrants” into their homes.
lesson? Illegal aliens are given priority over those who are here in blue America legally. Their ability to travel for work, send their children to school, and live as they wish in their own homes is currently being hindered or called into question. It's clearly not “selfish” to say this is wrong and destructive. But thanks to busloads from Texas and Florida, residents of blue states are starting to realize that fact.
Still, the never-ending lectures continue. Maybe that's not good for us Americans, they say. we must open the door to the world. It means that we believe that accepting everyone is a good thing for the world. As the old liberal slogan goes, “thinking globally, acting locally” should mean considering how policies affect our country and the world.
Catholic social teaching has always included this reality, even if too many activists, scholars, and even prelates overlook it. Immigration is a right, but not an absolute. The power increases depending on the situation. Those who are persecuted have the greatest rights. Those who are economically disadvantaged are second. People who are doing well but want more wealth have the weakest claims.
In a 1995 speech, Pope John Paul II said, “Illegal immigration must be stopped, but it is also essential to vigorously combat criminal acts that exploit illegal immigrants.'' Illegal immigration undermines the rule of law in both receiving and sending countries. It encourages human trafficking, low wages, and a culture of illegality.
But that's not all. Although we often focus on unskilled labor, other types of labor also raise moral questions. John Paul wrote in his 1981 encyclical, Laborem Movement, that immigration may be a “necessary evil,” but we must remember that it is “a loss to the countries left behind.” insisted.
John Paul, not a pure individualist, argued that “the loss of the labor subject whose efforts of mind and body could contribute to the common good of his own country, but instead that effort, this contribution, is rendered to another society.'' He talked about “things”. Feelings have less rights than one's country of origin. ”
We ignore this and even say, “We should only bring in skilled workers.” But other countries can't ignore it either. Brain drain, the loss of skilled workers, hurts them. Last month, the Nigerian Medical Association held a meeting to condemn the loss of post-training doctors and propose solutions.
It's not just medicine. In India, the study Last year, it was found that of the 1,000 highest scorers in the 2010 Joint Entrance Examination to Indian Institutes of Technology, “36% migrated abroad, while 62% of the top 100 scorers went abroad” did. As in Nigeria, concerted efforts by governments to bring back talented indigenous peoples have met with some success.
While some migration has always been a fact of life, its current nature and scale are destabilizing our country, depopulating countries, and ultimately the world. As the saying goes, good fences make good neighbors. If we want to be good neighbors to our fellow Americans and to the global village, we must mend fences and limit who and how many people are allowed to pass through them.
