Pope Francis addressed the bishops of the United States on Feb. 11 about the country’s ongoing mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants, urging Catholics to consider the justness of laws and policies in light of the dignity and rights of people.
In a letter published Feb. 11, the pope – while supporting a nation’s right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or serious crimes – said a “rightly formed conscience” would disagree with associating the illegal status of some migrants with cri-minality. “The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploi-tation, persecution, or serious deterioration of the environment damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he said. “All the Christian faithful and people of goodwill,” the pontiff continued, “are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.”
Francis emphasized that immigration laws and policies should be subordinated to the dignified treatment of people, especially the most vulnerable. “This is not a minor issue: An authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized,” he underlined. “The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all – as I have affirmed on numerous occasions – welcomes, protects, promotes, and integrates the most fragile, unprotected, and vulnerable.”
He said the just treatment of immigrants does not impede the development of policies to regulate orderly and legal migration, but “what is built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly.”