Employer Sanctions Opposed by Roman Catholic Bishops

Stopping just short of advocating that employers break the law by hiring illegal aliens, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops Thursday committed their church to stepping up its opposition to so-called “employer sanctions” imposed by the 1986 federal Immigration Reform and Control Act.

A statement adopted without dissent during the final hour of the bishops’ four-day annual conference here sets forth the church’s position that laws should be changed to ensure protection of the rights of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who failed to qualify for amnesty under the 1986 act but remain in this country.

But, the bishops said, “in our judgment, effective opposition to employer sanctions does not require that we break the law.”

“Defying legal sanctions must be viewed as an exceptional act justified only by clear moral necessity to prevent a greater evil, for which all other remedies have been exhausted,” they said. “The common good requires that all persons uphold the law and, where the law is deficient, to change it.”

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, a member of the bishops’ Committee on Migration, said in introducing the policy paper for discussion that “vast numbers (of immigrants) remain outside the protection of our nation’s laws.”

“The employer sanctions continue to place enormous burdens upon this remnant population . . . bearing unprecedented hardships,” he said.

Mahony, who heads the nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese, which is heavily Latino, unveiled his own policy on illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles Archdiocese last month. He said at the time that his document was a preview of the national position paper adopted here Thursday.

The archbishop has followed a cautious middle road in dealing with three Los Angeles priests who have advocated civil disobedience by publicly vowing to help illegal immigrants find jobs.

While reaffirming the church’s commitment to feed, clothe and shelter all immigrants--regardless of their legal status--Mahony has ordered all church workers in the archdiocese to obey the law.

On record against employer sanctions since 1971, the U.S. bishops in their statement said they will work to change the 1986 reform act to permit illegal aliens who arrived after the Jan. 1, 1982, cutoff date to gain legal status.