U.S. Border

Yesterday, the Florida Catholic Conference issued an action alert urging all Catholics to contact their Congressional representatives and senators in order to prevent the expansion of the E-Verify system. The bishops are urging our elected officials to oppose the expansion of E-Verify because “it will hurt both U.S. workers and the country’s already weakened economy.” Below is the full text of the action alert from the Florida Catholic Conference:

BACKGROUND: In the past decade, Congress has spent $117 billion of taxpayer dollars on immigration enforcement initiatives, yet the number of unauthorized immigrants in the country has grown to 11.2 million and the demand for foreign-born, low-skilled labor continues. Approximately 70 percent of the unauthorized population is in the U.S. labor force, and each year another 300,000 to 400,000 unauthorized immigrants enter the country. Our bishops have been consistent in calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

Some in Congress are now supporting the mandatory use of E-Verify by all 6 million U.S. employers. E-Verify is a largely voluntary program which allows employers to electronically verify workers’ employment eligibility with government databases. Due to well-documented flaws in the databases upon which it relies, E-Verify does not detect over half of the undocumented workers in the system, yet results in false positives for thousands of American workers.

Supporters of SB1070 attend a rally at the Arizona Capitol | Source: AP

Over the last several weeks, the new Arizona immigration law has been making news across the country. There are those that completely agree with the new law and those that completely disagree with the new law. Immigration reform is such an important issue to the people of the United States and an important concern for the Catholic Church. It seems there hasn’t been too much said about this latest controversy by many mainstream Catholic bloggers. That needs to change; so, let’s take a look at the facts and the stance of the Church on this important concern of ours, shall we.

Before we get started, let’s examine what the Center for Immigration Studies says about immigration in Arizona. The center released the following information on the current situation in Arizona:

• The federal government estimated that Arizona had one of the fastest growing illegal immigrant populations in the country, increasing from 330,000 in 2000 to 560,000 by 2008.
• The federal government estimated that Arizona had one of the fastest growing illegal immigrant populations in the country, increasing from 330,000 in 2000 to 560,000 by 2008.
• Arizona has adopted other laws to deter the settlement of illegal immigrants in the state in recent years. The federal government estimates that the illegal immigrant population dropped by 18 percent in the state from 2008 to 2009, compared to a 7 percent drop for the nation as a whole. This may be evidence that the state enforcement efforts are having an impact.