| U.S. News

In an Oct. 10 letter, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., asked U.S. President George W. Bush to veto H.R. 6061, the Secure Fence Act of 2006, passed by the two houses of Congress at the end of September.

“We are opposed to this legislation because we believe it could lead to the deaths of migrants attempting to enter the United States and increased smuggling-related violence along our border,” Bishop Skylstad said.

“It would send the wrong signal to our peaceful neighbor to the south, Mexico, as well as the international community,” he said, adding, “we do not believe it will solve the problem of illegal immigration faced by our nation.”

The conference president stressed that the U.S. bishops are “are supportive of efforts to enforce immigration law and secure our borders” as long as such measures “protect human dignity and protect human life.”

Bishop Skylstad referred to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that found migrant deaths have doubled since 1995, about the time the government began a series of border enforcement initiatives designed to stem illegal entries at ports-of-entry and other traditional crossing routes. Since this time, he added, close to 3,000 immigrants have died in remote portions of the southwest region of the country.

“In our estimation, the erection of a border fence would force migrants, desperate to find employment to support their families, to seek alternative and more dangerous ways to enter the country, contributing to an increase in deaths, including women and children,” Bishop Skylstad wrote.

The Catholic Church bears witness to the poverty that drives desperate people to seek employment in the United States, he said. “We do not believe that a fence will deter persons desperate to escape poverty from seeking employment in our country.”

He pointed out that international economic policy would impact on immigration in a positive way. “We strongly feel that the development of just global economic and trade policies designed to help create living wage jobs in countries of origin would permit persons to remain home and support themselves and their families,” Bishop Sklystad said.

“It is our view that the best way to secure our border is through the enactment of a comprehensive immigration reform measure, not by the construction of a border fence,” he said.

The Secure Fence Act of 2006, H.R. 6061, which passed Sept. 29 on a Senate vote of 80-19 after already being approved by the House of Representatives, was sent to the president for his signature.

A separate bill approved by the House provided an initial $1.2 billion in funding for the fence and other border-security measures, including criminalizing the construction of border tunnels, for the fiscal year that begins Oct 1. The money is part of a $34.8 billion bill for domestic security programs for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Bush had sought immigration legislation that would create a guest-worker program to help provide a workforce for jobs Americans are either unable or unwilling to do. But a group of House Republicans pushed for tougher enforcement and border measures instead.

With the legislation, both House and Senate Republicans sought to demonstrate their efforts to stop illegal immigration before the Nov. 7 mid-term elections. Democrats accused the Republican majority of playing politics with the issue, and opponents of the construction of the fence said it would be expensive and was not an effective deterrent to illegal immigration.

An estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants were arrested in the last fiscal year trying to cross into the United States along the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, with sections of the fence to be built in each state.

In a letter to Sept. 26 on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, Calif., chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, urged the U.S. Senate to oppose the Secure Fence Act of 2006 and to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation by the end of the year.

“We oppose H.R. 6061 because we believe it would not solve the problem of illegal immigration,” Bishop Barnes said. “Indeed, we believe it would create more problems than it would solve.

All nations have the right “to control their borders and regulate entry into their countries,” he acknowledged, but noted that that right is conditional.

“The U.S. Catholic bishops support efforts to ensure that U.S. authorities have the means to control U.S. borders effectively,” he said, “so long as enforcement strategies and mechanisms are applied humanely and protect human life.”

The legislation, besides authorizing the fence construction, would grant the U.S. secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authority to “take all actions necessary ...