AMERICA/COSTA RICA - “A humane law to promote the common good”: Central American Bishops concern for new immigration law

Friday, 17 March 2006

San José (Fides Service) - Deep concern about the new immigration laws being discussed in the United States has been expressed by the Catholic Bishops of central American countries in a statement signed by Bishop José Francisco Ulloa Rojas of Cartago, Costa Rica and Bishop Angel Sancasimiro Fernández of Ciudad Quesada, Costa Rica, respectively president and vice president of SEDAC Secretariat of Central American Bishops’ Conferences. In the statement the Bishops say the approval of H.R 4437 “would be a terrible financial disaster for thousands of individuals, families and communities”, because in central American countries money sent home from the US is a second largest source of income. The Bishops call for “a humane law and a humanitarian solution for the common good of all those searching for an alternative to the serious economic crisis in the region of central America."
If the proposed law is approved “it will mean people will run even greater risks to work in the United States and cause an even greater wave of migration, encouraging trafficking of emigrants and human persons", as well as increase violence and economic and political instability in the region. The concerned Bishops call for these effects “to be considered because they are important for Central America and in the long term also for the United States”. Emigrants have “rights and dignity” like everyone else the Bishops say and they call on US legislators to pass laws which allow family re-unification for foreign workers. “In a globalised world - the Bishops conclude - we must globalise solidarity for people who are excluded and pushed to the margins of society. For emigrants and for the Church there must be no walls or frontiers, but bridges which unite all brothers and sisters”. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 17/3/2006 - Righe 23, parole 312)


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