Immigration Apocalypse: A Catholic Social Teaching Response

Excerpted from the forthcoming book For God, Country, & Sanity: How Catholics Can Save America set for publication May 9 and available for presale now. 

At the cusp of the 2024 presidential election, we have a lawless, open border. And that’s something no Catholic should support. 

The rates of legal and illegal immigration from Latin American countries into the U.S. have grown dramatically, particularly under the border policies of President Joe Biden and have been cheered on by many Catholic agencies and leaders. 

August 2023 had the most encounters — 304,162 — of illegal aliens by U.S. Customs and Border Protection nationwide than any other month in our history. The next month was even worse. Illegal (and legal) immigrants, most with little or no documentation, have overwhelmed not only the states bordering Mexico, but also some of America’s largest cities far from the border such as New York City and Chicago.  

Once touting themselves as sanctuary cities, leaders of these cities have recently begun demanding restrictions on immigration, echoing similar demands from border states for decades. The El Paso, TX, Democratic mayor said his city is “at a breaking point.” The mayor of New York City recently said the migrant crisis will “destroy New York City.”  

Taking advantage of Biden’s essentially lawless border policies, illegal emigrants from throughout Latin America have either left or been transported through Mexico. Some have been apprehended at the U.S. border, and most released into our country with little or no tracking, nor apparent willingness to obey by U.S. immigration laws and assist in carrying civic burdens. 

Because of these policies, we are witnessing historic and disastrous humanitarian and legal crises on America’s southern border and extending throughout this entire nation, indeed much of the hemisphere. As the U.S. struggles with record numbers of illegal immigrants and corresponding crime, massive human trafficking, potential terrorists, and the growing power of drug cartels, we observe the same in Mexico and other Latin American countries... 

Of the 2,865 paragraphs in the Catholic Catechism, only one is dedicated to immigration. At just 128 words, the Church’s guiding principles are primarily directed at two entities: governments and the immigrants themselves... 

Obligations upon Immigrants 

Turning first to the responsibilities of immigrants, a principle almost completely ignored, if not implicitly contradicted by most official documents, policy statements, and lobbyist materials emanating from the American Catholic hierarchy and bureaucracy, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is abundantly clear: 

“Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.” 

Obligation. Gratitude. Obedience. Assist in civic burdens.  

These are serious responsibilities for those with a “right to immigrate.” But apparently, tens of thousands of recent immigrants are refusing to even do the minimum, as revealed in an internal audit of Biden’s Department of Homeland Security, which lost track of more than 177,000 immigrants between 2022 and 2023.  

By extension, these fundamental obligations logically fall upon those assisting immigrants, including charitable and religious organizations such as Catholic Charities USA, by far the most prolific recipient of immigration funding by the federal government, other entities affiliated directly or indirectly with the U.S. Catholic Church, and employers of these immigrants. It is well documented that tens and thousands of these charitable entities and employers, not to mention the immigrants themselves, have promoted and developed lawless, often cash-only economies specifically designed to avoid detection, hide income from taxation, and illegally qualify for government benefits. As a result, legal immigrant workers and just employers who seek to obey the law and ‘assist in carrying civic burdens’ are pressured by competition, lax social mores, lack of clear Church teaching, economic hardship, or even bureaucratic complexity to ignore this obligation... 

There is very little incentive for immigrants “to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage” of the United States. The situation at the southern border hardly reflects the Church’s vision for the movement of peoples, and it is certainly not a just system — for either legal or illegal immigrants... 

For every immigrant who comes to the United States, there is a reason they left their home, their church, their community, and their country. No matter how painful, Catholics in all countries should encourage leaders, both in and outside the Church, to address the root causes of this mass migration, particularly from Catholic countries.  

Under no Catholic doctrine is one country, no matter how wealthy, meant to be the band-aid for the wounds of another country, for the Church in another nation, or for the people and families of another homeland.  

Failing governments, failing nations, failing economies, failing Churches, and failing societies are not solved by immigration. The issue is much deeper, more systemic, and more human than mere laws, regulations, and government largesse. For the answers to these, we need to turn to the other 2,864 paragraphs of the Catholic Catechism, not just the single one on immigration.