The Word from Lansing: Faith Invites Us to See Human Person in Every Immigrant

Imagine having to flee to another country to protect the lives of your family. Imagine having to then build a new life in an entirely different and unfamiliar town.

For many people—including those in our communities and our churches—the scenario is reality rather than hypothetical. It is in this context that MCC is addressing the Catholic perspective on immigration in its new edition of Focus, titled “Seeing Christ in the Immigrant.”

Immigration is a complex and contentious topic. Legitimate discussions need to be had regarding border enforcement and security in this country and what immigration policy should look like. The Church has long recognized that nations have a right to secure and maintain their borders and that immigrants must obey the laws of the countries to which they migrate.

What MCC seeks to achieve with its new Focus—which complements the Pastoral Note to Migrants issued in February by the Catholic bishops in Michigan—is to invite Catholics, and all people of good will, to do as the title states: To see Christ in the immigrant.

At the heart of immigration, like any other public policy topic, are individual people with names, families, and stories. For instance, consider Carmen and Cesar, a young couple with two young boys who are parishioners at Gesu Catholic Church in Detroit.

They were well-established in their school and careers back home in El Salvador. Unfortunately, it became too dangerous to remain. Run-ins with the local gangs, and Carmen becoming pregnant, led to the couple applying for a tourist visa to visit Cesar’s family in America.

“This was not about money,” Carmen told MCC in an interview. “It was really unsafe for us.”

Consider too the story of Daris, a woman who lives and works in Detroit after migrating from Guatemala, where it was impossible to support herself and her family, exacerbated by the medical expenses incurred by one of her daughters who suffers from Rickets disease.

Many parents would do anything in their power—including crossing a national border—to defend and protect the life, health, and safety of their children, a perspective perhaps overlooked by those with concerns about immigrants. The Church, which over the years has recognized the imminent threat to human life posed by dangerous or deadly living conditions, teaches that people have the right to migrate when the conditions for a dignified or safe life are absent.

For individuals forced to migrate, their struggles do not end upon arrival. Once here, realities of day-to-day life set in, such as finding housing, a job to afford food and necessities, as well as schooling and healthcare for children.

“We come without knowing our rights, without knowing the laws, and really without knowing where to turn,” Daris told MCC in an interview.

This is where the Church has proved crucial in the lives of immigrants who needed the help of others to find their footing. And it is why Catholic-affiliated organizations have provided basic human needs to migrants—often at the request of the federal, state and local governments—in keeping with Jesus’ mandate to “welcome the stranger.”

Continued discussion about immigration policy and reform, while securing the border to prevent criminals or criminal activity from entering the country, is appropriate. At the same time, the experiences of migrants is an invitation to Catholics to recognize the person of Jesus Christ in others, especially the poor and those who have traveled to unfamiliar surroundings to support and protect themselves and their families.

To read MCC’s Focus, “Seeing Christ in the Immigrant,” available in both English and Spanish, visit micatholic.org/migration.