Clarifying ‘immigration reform’

CatholicAnchor.org

A group of about 100 people gathered recently at an Old Market shop in Omaha called “the Urban Abbey” to watch the documentary, “Documented.”

The Urban Abbey is a combination religious bookstore, coffee shop and social justice network run by the Methodist Church. A very concerned crowd showed up.

“Documented” is the story of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas, who is living and working in this country as an undocumented immigrant. The film’s been shown on CNN and at countless film festivals.

Three years before the current crisis of children swarming our southern border, Vargas decided that the right thing to do was to “out” himself as a person without legal standing in the United States. The subtitle of his film gives a sense of his purpose: the words “illegal immigrant” are crossed out, and the words “undocumented American” replace them.

Vargas worked for The Washington Post for many years, won a Pulitzer with them, and has paid his taxes. How, without “papers”? The film and his coming-out story in The New York Times magazine explain how he managed to do this.

I think many of us hear our U.S. Catholic bishops urging “immigration reform,” and we nod in agreement but are thoroughly confused by what this really means.

Vargas’ story makes a few things clear. Here’s one: there are millions of young people in our country who were brought here without documentation, as babies or young children. Like Vargas, they were clueless.

My congressional representative here in the Midwest likes to say that there should be no path to citizenship for “lawbreakers.” It seems ludicrous to say that about a little kid.

In Vargas’ case, he was a 12-year-old Filipino, whose grandfather, a naturalized U.S. citizen, arranged for a “coyote” to fly with him into the U.S. with a fake passport.

Grandpa was trying to get all his family to the U.S., mostly legally. He figured Jose could find menial jobs and eventually secure his citizenship by marrying a citizen.

Vargas had a fake social security card and a fake green card that he assumed were real. Imagine his surprise when, at sixteen, he rode his bike over to the DMV with his green card to get a driver’s license.

“This is fake,” the woman at the desk whispered. “Don’t come back here.”

His life of fear began.

And here’s the second thing the film taught me: for Vargas, there is no clear pathway to citizenship. People tell him to go to the end of the line. But it’s likely a dead end.

Grandpa’s plan about marrying a citizen? Turns out Vargas is gay. And coming out to that, he said, was a lot easier than revealing, in 2011 at the height of his career, that he is an undocumented American.

These are the people referred to as “dreamers.” When Congress failed to pass legislation to address the dilemma faced by people like Vargas, President Obama attempted to help them unilaterally. Unfortunately for Vargas, he was too old to meet the administration’s criterion.

Some suggest this action towards the “dreamers” may have created some misconceptions in Central America that kids had a “get to America free card.” There may be some truth to that.

But that further points to the fact that the U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration must act together to provide solid, comprehensive immigration reform, and must present a unified face in deterring misunderstandings across our borders. It’s time to stop playing politics with this problem.

Conversation at the Urban Abbey pointed to this: Just as the U.S. Catholic bishops have been urging, we must contact our representatives and demand comprehensive and compassionate reform.

The writer, formerly from Anchorage, now lives in Omaha, Neb.