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By Elizabeth Tomlinson
Christ the King Parish, Missoula
By the nature of their status and situations, migrant workers in Montana are connected with the fate of others throughout the nation. And in recent months, such workers have faced tremendous challenges.
In the second half of 2008, there was a series of raids and arrests of immigrants that were the largest in the nation’s history. They were the most dramatic demonstration of “Operation Endgame,” a plan to deport 12 million people by 2012, for which over 400 detention facilities are being or have been built. These federal prisons are run by for-profit corporations, such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). In past decades, migrants were allowed to leave voluntarily or were deported after being found guilty.
Such raids are the “stick” for a two-pronged plan intended to satisfy employers who want cheap workers who have no protections.
The “carrot” of the plan is “guest worker” laws that control who gets in, and then these foreign workers can be denied working conditions that the American people have determined are essential labor and human rights.
The heart of the universal Catholic Church is the doctrine that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. The Church teachings are consistent from the Vatican, to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to local parishes. Religious and lay people in Montana are involved in seeking justice in U.S. immigration reform, in concert with the whole Church.
Through their involvement with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, and the Sisters of Charity BVM, Montana BVM Associates Mary Kay Craig and George Waring of Butte have monitored and reported on the building of these detention facilities, and the legal procedures used to incarcerate migrant workers.
Arrests leave workers, families in limbo
In the early hours of May 12, 2008, Immigration and Census Enforcement (ICE) authorities raided an Agriprocessors meat-packing plant in Postville, Iowa.
Father Herbert Pins of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Dillon stayed in touch during the succeeding months with what was happening to the migrant workers. “I’m from that area, and I know those people,” he said.
The Sisters of Charity BVM, who have had a presence as educators in Montana for over 100 years, were actively working to help the individuals involved.
Sister Mary McCauley, BVM, along with Father Paul Ouderkirk, the retired pastor of St. Bridget Parish in Postville, fed and provided shelter in the church for hundreds of women and children whose husbands and fathers had been arrested.
As of October 2008, a mother of two daughters, whose husband had been taken to a Missouri prison, had been wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet for five months, leaving her unable to work or to leave town. She said, “There isn’t much I can do; I depend so much on the charity of the church here.” Even if her husband were deported, she wouldn’t have enough money to go with him.
Broken laws must be addressed
“Rather than focus on those who are forced to break the law in order to provide for the basic needs of their families, we should focus instead on fixing the broken laws themselves: broken in the sense that they do not work and cannot work because they impede rather than facilitate the exercise of the God-given rights of migrants,” writes Bishop Anthony Taylor of Arkansas, in “I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me: A Pastoral Letter on the Human Rights of Immigrants.”
The Catholic bishops of Mexico and the United States issued a joint pastoral letter, “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope,” containing recommendations for comprehensive immigration reform.
These recommendations include global anti-poverty efforts; expanded opportunities to reunify families; a genuine temporary worker program that includes a path to permanent residency which is achievable/verifiable; family unity which allows immediate family members who have work authorization to join a worker; job portability which allows workers to change employers; labor protections which apply to U.S. workers; enforcement mechanisms and resources to enforce workers’ rights; wages and benefits which do not undercut domestic workers; mobility between the U.S. and homeland and within the U.S.; a labor-market test to ensure U.S. workers are not harmed; and the restoration of due process.
On July 30, 2008, the U.S. Bishops Conference Office of Migration and Refugee Services recognized Sister Mary McCauley, BVM, and St. Bridget Parish with the Outstanding Service Award for their work on behalf of the immigrant and Hispanic community.
The Iowa Catholic Conference reported in November 2008 that the crisis in Postville had worsened, and in response the Iowa Department of Economic Recovery awarded a $698,000 block grant for families losing employment due to the closing of the meat plant.
On the World Day of Migration and Refugees last month, Pope Benedict XVI asked us to offer our own efforts on behalf of the immigrants among us. “How can we fail to meet the needs of those who are de facto the weakest and most defenseless, marked by precariousness and insecurity, marginalized and often excluded by society?”
Online Resources
For more information, visit the following web resources:
www.8thdaycenter.org
www.justiceforimmigrants.org
www.dolr.org/bishop/pastoralimmigration_english.pdf
www.usccb.org/about/migration-and-refugee-services/
old.usccb.org/mrs/bishopwesterfinal.pdf
Justice Voices articles are coordinated by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development committee of the Diocese of Helena.
Ed.: This is the second of a two-part series on Montana’s migrant workers. The first article appeared in the Jan. 23 issue of The Montana Catholic.
Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 25, No. 3, March 20, 2009.
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