Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Washington (Agenzia Fides) - A report by the Office of the Budget of the United States Congress, published yesterday, on Monday, July 29, indicates that, if the immigration reform is approved, one in four undocumented immigrants living in the country, will not be able to rectify his situation because some requirement will be missing or because he will not be able to finish the paperwork. In this way, more than 11 million illegal immigrants who are estimated to live in the United States, only 8 million will try to obtain citizenship.
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Senate approved a reform bill that provides a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants. The approval of the project by the House of Representatives has become more complicated due to the opposition of many Republican lawmakers who, among other things, do not want U.S. citizenship to be granted to undocumented immigrants who manage to legalize their situation.
Fides Agency received the Archbishop of Los Angeles’ opinion, His Exc. Mgr. Jose H. Gómez, President of the Commission for Immigrants of the Episcopal Conference, on the approval of the law: "Simply because we are a Catholic Church we are interested in the immigration debate, it is a debate on the future of the Church and our Catholic people. Mexicans and Latin Americans are at the center of this controversy, millions of people whose destinies are decided by our politicians, are largely Catholic faithful" highlighted the Archbishop. "The Church does not take into account where its faithful come from, but calculates this figure by the number of children baptized. Los Angeles, for example, has an average of about 84,000 infants and children per year. Most of these are Hispanic and other ethnic minorities". (CE) (Agenzia Fides 30/07/2013)
