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Title: Bishops decry 'heartless' fed feast- day raid targeting illegal immigrant
Source:
Catholic Online
URL Source: http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=22514
Published: Dec 28, 2006
Author: staff
Post Date: 2006-12-30 13:18:35 by gargantuton
Keywords: None
Views: 111
Comments: 7
Bishops decry 'heartless' fed feast- day raid targeting illegal immigrants 12/28/2006 Catholic Online ST. PAUL, Minn. (Catholic Online) – U.S. federal immigration raids in a southern Minnesota city and other sites in six states served to heartlessly divide families, disrupt a community and undermine efforts made to bridge racial and cultural divisions, according to the state’s Catholic bishops, who called for an end of such actions. In a strongly worded Dec. 21 statement concerning the Dec. 12 raids on Swift & Co. meat plants in six states involving about 1,000 federal agents, the seven bishops of Minnesota said that they were “distressed and disheartened” by the law-enforcement effort that targeted illegal immigrants, especially as it took place on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas. In Washington on Dec. 13, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Julie L. Myers, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras and Cache County (Utah) Attorney N. George Daines announced that an estimated 1,282 persons were arrested as part of an ongoing worksite enforcement investigation into immigration violations and an identity theft scheme. Swift facilities in Greeley, Colo., Grand Island, Neb., Cactus, Texas, Hyrum, Utah, and Marshalltown, Iowa, were also raided, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), the largest investigative arm of the U.S. federal Department of Homeland Security. Of the almost 1,300 illegal alien workers arrested at the six plants, 65 were also charged with criminal violations related to identity theft or other violations, such as re-entry after deportation, the ICE said in a statement. Countries of origin of those arrested, according to the ICE, in the ongoing investigation that began in February included: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan and Ethiopia. The Minnesota bishops questioned the value of the raids in combating identity theft. “In fact,” they said, “few of the workers arrested at the Swift plant in Worthington were charged as perpetrators of the identity theft scheme.” “To add insult to injury, immigration officials chose the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” they said, “as the day to target these workers and their families.” But according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts said "the date was chosen only because, logistically, everything came together that day," reported the St. Paul-based daily Pioneer Press. The bishops in their statement said that the raids "heartlessly divided families, disrupted the whole community of Worthington and undermined progress that that city had made toward bridging racial and cultural differences." "We call for an end of such raids which violate the rights of workers and the dignity of work,” the Minnesota bishops said. “These men and women are our brothers and sisters; as workers, they provide our food; as residents, they support our local businesses and communities." “We must always remember that their dignity as human beings must be foremost in our thinking as we address the critical issues surrounding immigration,” the bishops said. “Our faith calls us to overcome all forms of discrimination and violence so that we may build relationships that are just and loving.” Noting that “the raids did nothing to advance needed reform,” the seven Catholic prelates pointed to “criteria for reform” in overhauling the U.S. immigration system, proposed by the U.S. and Mexican bishops’ conferences, that includes: - An “earned legalization program” toward permanent residency for the undocumented. - Allowance for family members to be reunited with loved ones in the United States. - Establishment of “legal pathways for migrants to come and work in a safe, humane and orderly manner.” - Restoration of due-process protections for immigrants. ”Comprehensive immigration reform, including a broad legalization program, should be a policy priority when Congress meets in the new year,” the bishops said. Bishop Bernard Harrington of the Diocese of Winona, in which Worthington is located, was joined in signing the statement by Archbishop Harry Flynn and Auxiliary Bishop Richard Pates of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Bishops Victor Balke of Crookston, Dennis Schnurr of Duluth, John Nienstedt of New Ulm and John Kinney of St. Cloud.
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#1. To: All (#0)
Better call the Pope and all the Neocons -- the Catholic Church has been overrun by traitorous Commies who subvert American laws and want to see America destroyed so as to bring about an new American Catholic century... all good Catholics in America need to protest against these left wing crazies.../sarcasm
Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the public authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later. --Allan Bloom "The disgusting stink of a too loud electric guitar; now that's my idea of a good time." -- Frank Zappa
The church helps the illegals. There are protestant churches with homeless shelters that end up sheltering more illegals than Americans. They are not the problem, the problem is the employers who hire them for slave/cheap labor and a govt that does nothing to stop them. Most illegals are not the problem, although nationwide, 16% of the prison population are illegals. There are some who have murdered literally thousands of Americans and committed thousands of other violent crimes.
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." Catholic church overrun by Neocon commies is right! Does anyone doubt that Law Enforcement would delay an arrest warrant for anyone else regardless of their religious beliefs? Of course they would run the warrant...whenever it suits them. The mainline Worldwide Council of Churches to which most all denominations belong is Communist. The organized "church" is communist. I tire and sicken of the PC NWO Bravo Sierra going on. I especially tire of the traitors in Congress and on PA Ave who have been selling out our country for decades. May I live long enough to see them get the rope.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act - - George Orwell I've read about that. The Catholic actions get a bit more press than others, probably because they design it that way... but, the fact is that these religious institutions are helping illegal immigrants, and helping both on their journeys here as well as, for some, on their journeys back. For me, it is extremely difficult to buy into the argument that these religious groups are committing "sins" (and the argument has been made to me) by their decisions to help illegals in the US. Seems to me that it elevates the state and one's political wishes above one's religion its moral teachings, and makes the religion a tool of the state and whatever policies of the state individual x wants to see implemented. You hit the nail on the head with that first sentence. The problem isn't the Church, it isn't the immigrants who come for work -- it's the economic policies that exploit them in the first place and a government that does nothing to stop that exploitation. If that were changed for the better, I imagine and would hope that the illegal immigration problem would decrease, and the religious institutions' roles in this twisted political/moral issue would correspondingly decrease. So long as that economic system and mindset are in place, the immigrants will probably keep coming. And the churches will continue to minister to them. As for the prisoners: they should go back to where they came from.
Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the public authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later. --Allan Bloom "The disgusting stink of a too loud electric guitar; now that's my idea of a good time." -- Frank Zappa
What types of policy changes do you think would be effective enough to transform the economic system and decrease the illegal immigrant problem?
Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the public authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later. --Allan Bloom "The disgusting stink of a too loud electric guitar; now that's my idea of a good time." -- Frank Zappa
Gotta disagree with you on this one. The Catholic Church isn't communist... it's not overrun by hacks like that. I think the bishops see themselves performing their Christian duty in their assistance to the immigrants. And, that's not communist.
Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the public authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later. --Allan Bloom "The disgusting stink of a too loud electric guitar; now that's my idea of a good time." -- Frank Zappa
Fining the employers more than they save by hiring illegals over Americans at real American wages. I'm sure there are more ideas, but I would start there. Victor Davis Hanson, who wrote "Mexifornia", claims that the problem is the rate at which they are arriving; that in times past they were able to assimilate into American culture. Now they are just cramming into barrios. There are so many in some areas that local health clinics have had to shut down, sometimes hospitals.
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
#2. To: gargantuton (#1)
---Henry Kissinger, New York Times, October 28, 1973
#3. To: gargantuton, btp holdings (#0)
(Edited)
“To add insult to injury, immigration officials chose the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” they said, “as the day to target these workers and their families.”
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
In a CorporoFascist capitalist society, there is no money in peace, freedom, or a healthy population, and therefore, no incentive to achieve these - - IndieTX
#4. To: robin (#2)
The church helps the illegals. There are protestant churches with homeless shelters that end up sheltering more illegals than Americans.
They are not the problem, the problem is the employers who hire them for slave/cheap labor and a govt that does nothing to stop them. Most illegals are not the problem, although nationwide, 16% of the prison population are illegals. There are some who have murdered literally thousands of Americans and committed thousands of other violent crimes.
#5. To: robin (#2)
#6. To: IndieTX (#3)
#7. To: gargantuton (#5)
---Henry Kissinger, New York Times, October 28, 1973
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