Are there defensible reasons for mass deportations?
Two recent Supreme Court decisions have had a great effect on immigration. First, the Supreme Court affirmed that birthright citizenship has been enshrined in the practice of our country from the beginning, ...
America at 250: We must remember we are still a nation of immigrants
In 1958, at age 14, I learned a personal lesson about patriotism on a Boy Scout pilgrimage to Europe. Our first stop was the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. As we viewed the various pavilions, of ...
The new face of mass deportation
In his confirmation hearing, former Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said, "My goal in six months is that we are not in the lead story every single day." Mullin made a strategic choice of words. The ...
'Les Misérables' and the moral questions behind migration
On a recent vacation, I read Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables." Hugo was truly a poet and philosopher. "Les Misérables" became one of his most popular works through its musical presentation ...
Deportation and the conscience of a nation
A short history of America's fascination with deportation may help us understand the present situation and correct some of its excesses. Daniel Kanstroom, author of the definitive work on outsiders ...
Critical points in immigration history: From restriction to reform and back again
Recently, I gave two presentations: first at the Pope St. John XXIII Seminary in Massachusetts, and the second at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Both presentations were on the past 100 years ...
The Cabrini Pledge: An invitation to be keepers of hope
On Nov. 13, the church celebrated the feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, patroness of all immigrants. On that occasion, the bishops of the United States and the bishops of the state of New York issued ...
The effects of mass deportations on the labor market in America
For the past 40 years, undocumented immigration has been fueled by a lack of legal avenues for immigrant workers to fill critical jobs in the economy, and a failure by Congress to reform the system to ...
