c. 2000 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ Taking advantage of last week’s Encuentro 2000 call to respect all people, Cardinal Roger Mahony has thrown the weight of the church behind a controversial proposal to extend legal status to immigrants currently in the United States illegally.

In a homily Sunday (July 9) concluding the four-day celebration of the church’s ethnic diversity, Mahony referred to a Los Angeles meeting a month ago where he joined immigrant workers in their amnesty bid for the undocumented.

“There were janitors, hotel workers and farmworkers who have contributed to the economic growth of this region” at that meeting, Mahony said. “In return (for their contributions to society), there should be new opportunities for legal residency and citizenship,” he said.

The archbishop’s comments hit home with Encuentro 2000 participants who earlier voiced concern in a workshop over what they perceived as a lack of organized leadership by the nation’s bishops on the illegal immigrant issue.

Diana Mejia, of the Wind of the Spirit Immigration Resource Center in Morristown, N.J., broke into tears of frustration as she described the plight of the illegal immigrants she serves.

Demanding action, she insisted, “if we can mobilize people for abortion, we can mobilize people for amnesty.”

One of the two workshop presenters, Kevin Appleby, director of the Office of Migration and Refugee Policy of the United States Catholic Conference, explained that church social teaching upheld the dignity of the undocumented. He said the church opposes the fragmentation of families that it believes stems from current immigration law.

Appleby listed options for legalizing illegal workers, including targeting groups left out of recent immigration legislation and rolling forward the “registry date” now marking 1972 as the last year immigrants could arrive in the United States and apply for legal status.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Human Immigration Rights of Los Angeles, another presenter at the workshop, reminded the audience of the recent “immigrant bashing” surrounding California’s Proposition 187 that sought to limit government benefits for immigrants.

Salas said “massive” voter registration of Latinos in California had upped the stakes for the Hispanic vote in the presidential elections.

“Now we have George Bush and Al Gore trying to speak Spanish,” she added.

Mahony’s message echoed not only the earlier June meeting but a joint statement issued March 15 with Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio and AFL-CIO president John Sweeney promoting legalization for undocumented workers and respect for their current plight.

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