To the Editor:
“Jesus said, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ...the whole law is based, and the prophets as well.” Matthew 22:39-40.
As one of the pastors who signed Bishop Tobin’s letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, I?fully support the bishop’s well-reasoned, pastoral and spiritual plea for a moratorium on immigration raids until our nation can implement a comprehensive and just reform of our immigration laws.
How can we complain about human rights violations in other countries when those same human rights violations exist in our own? Do you know that the first two men to die in the Iraqi War were undocumented aliens from Texas? Did you know that they were buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery and awarded their U.S. Citizenship posthumously, according to news reports at the time?
All the recent immigrants want is an opportunity to demonstrate that they can be good, hard working and productive members of American Society in order to care for their families. If there is a problem with their documentation, then the government has a right and obligation to fix it. If someone should commit a serious crime, then of course deport that individual. No one would have a problem with that. But please don’t make the innocent suffer with the guilty.
Haven’t we had enough xenophobia from the 20th century? Let us not turn this country into a police state. For if we do then the terrorists, who hate this country, will have achieved that stated objective, the destruction of our basic freedoms and constitutionally guaranteed civil rights. May God open our hearts and minds to welcome the stranger among us.
Rev. Robert J. Giardina
Pastor, St. Charles Borromeo Church, Providence
