Father Bascio presents a strikingly different perspective on illegal immigration from that of most Christian clergymen. He turns his spotlight on the harm of officially tolerated illegal immigration to America’s own struggling workers in the form of joblessness, shrinking wages and poorer working conditions. African-American workers, already plagued by job discrimination, bear the heaviest burden of the illegal invasion, which locks them out of many workplaces or drives wages below acceptable levels.
The chronic non-enforcement of immigration laws is no accident: Congress has little stomach for ending something so profitable for their most powerful donors and the voters they can muster. The author fears that many committed Christians are blinded to these abuses by their church leaders' preoccupation with charity toward illegal aliens, while ignoring the plight of millions of low-wage Americans. He deftly rebuts the self-serving myth of employers’ and politicians’ that illegals “do jobs Americans won’t do.” Bascio also sees the profit motive behind legal immigration policies that lure the third world’s best and brightest to America, stripping poorer nations of their physicians, teachers and scientists.
As a Catholic priest, the author admits the unpleasantness of taking a position not shared by his Church’s hierarchy, which is driven by the prospect of rising membership. Bascio sees unchecked illegal immigration as having grave consequences for overall U.S. tranquility: disdain for the rule of law, street gangs, document fraud and identity theft, staggering welfare and education costs and creeping “Balkanization” that threatens the national principle of E Pluribus Unum.
Father Bascio’s book is a resounding appeal to Christians to re-examine their churches’ conventional view of illegal immigration and consider the hardship it brings for fellow Americans and its dangers for the nation as a whole.
Father Patrick Pascio is a retired Catholic priest, international human rights expert, professor and writer whose long ministry has included assignments in the U.S., Tanzania and the Caribbean islands. In Trinidad he taught at the University of the West Indies and, in Grenada, advised the Prime Minister and represented that country on U.N. committees. He founded and directed Salve Regina University’s PhD program and directed its Master’s program in Humanities. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran of World War II. Father Bascio has two master’s degrees in the social sciences and a doctorate. A prolific writer, Bascio’s works since 1994 include The Failure of White Theology: A Black Theological Perspective (1994); Gorbachev and the Collapse of the Soviet Communist Party (with Evgueny Novikov --1994); Defeating Islamic Terrorism: The Wahabi Factor (2006); and Perfidy: the Government Cabal that Knowingly Abandoned Our Prisoners of War (2008).
Twisted and Suspect Piety—Church groups that favor illegal immigration often invoke the Almighty and wrap themselves in the mantle of compassion as their justification for turning a blind eye to the crimes of an illegal alien community. If simply giving somebody something they want without making them earn it is compassion, then larceny is next to godliness. The American and Mexican bishops should use their good intentions and powerful influence to remind the Mexican government that it has a responsibility for its citizens. The Mexican works for slave wages, thus impelling him to enter the United States under any conditions. Why does every discussion among American and Mexican ecclesiastics leave out the responsibility the Mexican government has for its own citizens? This is a question they must ask and answer. If it is a lack of understanding of economics and social development, then they need but acquire that from the vast academic community at their disposal. If they are considering the mere growth of church membership and the increase of American remittances to south of our border as more important than curbing the evils connected with illegal immigration, then the Church needs to seek repentance.
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Those who preach the biblical emphasis on Sanctuary might wish to meditate on the meaning of this quote: In chapter 13 of the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we read: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed.” (Romans 13:1-2). Clearly, this is advice to Christians to follow the laws of their nation and to respect the laws of other nations. It might be better for those superiors who order their clerics to break the law by harboring illegal aliens, to use the tools available to any American and work to have the law changed. Let democracy decide this question.
Although Christianity encourages acts of charity, we cannot be both charitable and law breakers. We cannot rob Peter to pay Paul. The Archbishop of Mexico City should be encouraged to work with his own backyard politicians and create a Mexico that treats its own citizens decently. He should encourage Mexicans to work for Christian social change in Mexico instead of criticizing U. S. immigration policies. Unless the Mexican government steps up to the plate and reorganizes its corrupt and inefficient use of state monies and talent, Mexican citizens will never be able to have a fulfilling life. Nor can the Mexican government take pride in itself by simply pushing the poor from their house to our house. That is neither Christian charity nor respect for its citizenry. The Mexican ruling elite is trying to con America into taking on board what the Mexican government considers to be excess baggage. One day they will be called to account for disrespecting their own people in this cold and calculating manner.
. . . The situation is clearly out of control. The American Christian Church must say something about all of this! It is an issue chock full of immorality. If Christian leaders keep their ear to the ground they will learn that in the pews, and among the clergy who operate parishes in industrial sections of this nation, the overwhelming majority of the people of faith see what the leaders seem to have difficulty seeing, i.e., that illegal immigration hurts the most America's most vulnerable citizens.