Immigration Legal Services

$7 million for Catholic Charities to expand immigration legal services

There are fellow Catholics, who live in our Archdiocese, who immigrated here without legal status.

Some people insist that these folks should be sent back to their home country to stand in
line to apply for permission to enter our country legally.

With all due respect for the rule of law, if that were to happen, they would be returning to a poverty we can’t even imagine, or to suffer violence from gangs and oppressive governments, as well as to wait a very long time due to a broken immigration system.

That could also result in separating parents and children. Moreover, we would lose neighbors who are Church-going, family-oriented, and hard-working. Our economy would suffer, too, given our need for more workers.

So, instead of sending these folks away, our Catholic Charities is working to help them legalize their immigration status while they are still living here.

Catholic Charities already has attorneys and support staff to offer legal services to immigrants, but the demand exceeds the ability to handle cases in a timely manner.

If this ministry isn’t expanded, immigrants would be forced to continue to live in the shadows, and in fear of being deported, and possibly separated from family members.

We do this in response to the teaching of Jesus and his Catholic Church, to welcome the stranger, knowing that Jesus takes personally whether or not we do.