Question:
Answer:
As is often the case with Church teaching, it’s a both/and—not an either/or—in providing support to immigrants, including illegal immigrants, as well as obeying U.S. law. That is, we need to attend to the basic and pressing needs of all immigrants—to the best of our abilities—as well as uphold our nation’s laws, which might include the eventual deportation of those immigrants who don’t qualify to remain in our country for one reason or another.
Scripture teaches, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exod. 22:21) and, “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exod. 23:9). The letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2). And Jesus says in his parable of the sheep and the goats at the Last Judgment: “[F]or I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matt. 25:35, emphasis added; CCC 1033).
So we have a Gospel mandate to give support to all immigrants regarding their basic and pressing needs.
The problem in the United States is a rather complicated one, because while we have laws, the federal and state governments have for years not enforced these laws in many cases, and they also willfully welcomed and employed many illegal immigrants. And yet a country cannot sustain the various societal pressures associated with free-flow illegal immigration for the long term.
Immigration considerations include not wanting to break up families if possible, and yet those immigrants who have committed crimes, particularly violent ones, must face justice—including deportation. A country has a right to secure its borders and thereby protect citizenry. At the same time, it should be open to immigration, especially by those who have respected U.S. laws in seeking immigration. The Church teaches that nations have sovereignty regarding issues like immigration, yet that that sovereignty is not absolute, as the aforementioned biblical passages affirm (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (CSDC), 435).
For further reading, see CSDC 289, 297-98 and the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2419-25 and 2437-49.