Among the many (many!) horrors of the revised executive
order on demigration is its emphasis on a merit-based system. In this context,
“merit” means “money.” The opposite is “family.” Be clear: a merit-based system
is a deliberate decision to treat immigrants as economic animals, sources of
cash – instead of treating them as members of a family. This is indeed a horror
show.
The horror has deep roots. When the USA was building a
transcontinental railroad, we imported Chinese workers for the western half. They
were not permitted to bring their wives; the racing railroad provided whores
instead. And when the work was done, the workers who didn’t run for it were
rounded up and sent home. In other words, anti-Chinese sentiment was among the
earliest examples of ethnic-specific campaigns of racist exclusion in our
history. And note well: this racist policy was explicitly anti-family.
The stance of the Catholic Church is radically opposed to
this de-humanization of immigrants. Since Pius XII’s letter on immigration in
1951, the Church has seen the Holy Family in its flight to Egypt as the prototype
and patron and protector of all refugees and migrants. The Holy FAMILY. Joseph
the Worker was really, truly, emphatically not supposed to move to Egypt
without his FAMILY. And so it’s not surprising that when St. John Paul II wrote
about the “right to migrate” (in Familiaris Consortio), he listed it among the
rights of the FAMILY.
The reason for the current renewal and strengthening of an
anti-family policy is explicit: Trump and comp want money, and so they prefer
wealth-makers. The choice is deliberate and idolatrous. Further, it is yet
another example of the blindly unjust pattern in much American thinking about
immigrants. The Church teaches that clear thought about immigration begins with
recognizing the right to migrate together with the right to control borders,
then balancing them. But treating people as cogs in an economic machine reveals
a total lack of interest in any effort to balance competing rights with justice
and mercy.
The deep horror of the proposed policy is made even
more-heart-breaking by the near-solid support of America’s pro-life /
pro-FAMILY organizations. Friends, in the name of God, pay attention! A
merit-based policy is a swap: you’re trading in your love of family – for money.
It’s despicable, and hypocritical, and idolatrous.