Hourly Update

Arizona bishops urge more compassion for illegal immigrants

PHOENIX - Arizona's Catholic bishops said politicians ought to make America's immigration policies more compassionate toward the thousands of illegal immigrants who sneak into the United States each year to provide a better living for their families. The bishops prepared a pastoral letter, being released Thursday, that calls for major changes in the country's immigration laws and asks Arizona's Catholics to follow the church's tradition of embracing newcomers. It also rejects the notion that illegal immigrants aren't welcome in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Last year, Arizona voters approved a law that denied some welfare benefits to illegal immigrants - a victory that emboldened some lawmakers to try to impose other restrictions on those who cross the border illegally. The church leaders wrote that America has a right to control its borders and that they weren't condoning illegal immigration. Still, they said it's impossible to deport the more than 10 million illegal immigrants living in the United States and that society ought to embrace them. "We want solutions to the immigration question that resolves the immigration question, that does not just diminishes people," Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas said in an interview. Even though immigrants provide the American economy with cheap labor, Arizona and other border states shoulder huge health care and education costs for illegal workers and their families. The bishops said illegal immigrants make a valuable contribution to the country. Ten percent of all workers in Arizona's economy are illegal immigrants, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates. Kicanas said he hopes the letter, which won't be read during Mass but will be published in the state's Catholic newspapers, will inspire discussion among rank-and-file parishioners and influence the debate at the Legislature, where illegal immigration is expected play a large part in the coming year. Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates limits on immigration, said the bishops are advocating on behalf of people who undercut American workers by accepting lower wages. "You're being charitable with somebody else's job, somebody else's tax dollars, and that's not charity," Mehlman said. The letter was signed by Kicanas; Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted; Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., whose territory includes parts of northeastern Arizona; and Bishop William Skurla of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys, Calif., who also represents Eastern rite Catholics in Arizona.