by Jeff Carr When was the last time you heard a Catholic cardinal calling his flock to civil disobedience? That's what Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony did in his Lenten message, urging his people to make room "for the stranger in our midst, praying for the courage and strength to offer our spiritual and pastoral ministry to all who come to us." The strangers to whom he was referring are the estimated 11.5 to 12 million undocumented immigrants living on the margins of our society.

The simmering immigration debate heated up this past week, as the Senate Judiciary Committee began to discuss a bill by Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to reform immigration laws and create a guest worker program. This comes on the heels of a bill passed in December by the House (H.R. 4437)

focusing primarily on how to secure our borders from undocumented migrants, mostly from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Much of the debate up to this point has been focused on border security, the job market, and political bargaining. All that changed, however, when Mahony added the moral dimension to the debate.

He and many other religious leaders are particularly concerned about a provision in H.R. 4437 (also in Specter's bill) that would impose sanctions on anyone who assists undocumented immigrants in remaining in the U.S. If enacted into law, this bill would criminalize social service workers and others who provide compassionate or humanitarian aid to undocumented people, including churches and faith-based organizations. The crime would be a felony, potentially punishable by stiff fines and up to five years in prison. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mahony said that if Congress passes the bill, he will instruct the priests in his 288 parishes to defy the law in open civil disobedience.

Prior to coming to Sojourners, I spent 17 years living and working a few miles west of the cardinal's cathedral in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Los Angeles. I was privileged to direct the Bresee Community Center, a faith-based organization that provides educational programs, job training, health care, and basic social services for young people and their families. Through the years, I developed personal relationships with hundreds of children and families who didn't possess a piece of paper that afforded them legal status in this country. If the law being considered by Congress were passed while I was directing the center, I would surely have gone to jail.

We certainly need humane immigration reform in this country, but a mean-spirited criminalization approach that focuses only on border security is not the answer. We can't realistically deport nearly 12 million people, and if we somehow could, our economy would go into a tailspin. Most of the undocumented people I knew were some of the most hardworking, family-oriented people in my neighborhood. They came to this country for the same reasons people have come here for during the past 400 years: economic, religious, and political freedom. Many of them fled civil war in their countries or economic conditions so desperate that risking everything to come to this country really wasn't a choice. And most of the young people I worked with had come here at such a young age they had no memories of their home country. They assimilated into our community, learned to speak the language, and educated themselves; yet by no choice of their own, they live in legal limbo.

One young woman I knew fled civil war in a Latin American country, arriving in our community at age 5. She learned English, and, though she went to underperforming local public schools, was a model student, worked hard, graduated from high school with honors, and attended an Ivy League school. With private scholarships, her own money, and the help of her parents, she graduated with a degree in political science in three years. When she returned to our community, her sole desire was to invest herself through her work in the lives of other Latina-Latino young people who faced the same odds she did. Due to her undocumented status, however, she is working in the underground economy earning wages that barely make it possible to survive economically.

It is not realistic to think this young woman will return to her war torn country just because we decide to make her a felon. There is nothing to return to. She is smart, capable, and could be part of helping make our communities stronger. And if this bill passes, millions of people like her won't go home; they will go further underground and become part of the permanent underclass in our society. Instead of rewarding her for hard work, we will penalize her and her family for wanting a better life. That's not America, and it's wrongheaded.

We should follow the outline for immigration reform developed by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops and other church organizations in their "Justice for Immigrants" campaign:

a.. More visas for family members of migrants to reduce what can be decades-long waits to reunify; b.. A guest worker program with a path to permanent residency;

c.. Better legal processes to guarantee immigrant rights; d.. Legalization of undocumented migrants; e.. Economic development in poor countries to reduce the need to migrate.

As a person of faith, I believe we should take seriously the writer of Leviticus who says, "When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don't take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God" (Leviticus 19:33-34, The Message).

I hope Mahony would have room to welcome an evangelical Christian minister such as me to join him and his fellow priests in civil disobedience. It's time for people of faith to stand up on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters whom I am confident Jesus would have included when he said "I was a stranger and you welcomed me."

Jeff Carr is chief operating officer for Sojourners.

March 2006