Amnesty Is No ‘Moral Imperative’

Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote an article for the New York Daily News entitled “Immigration Reform a Moral Imperative” 9/6/13. In it he stated that “We cannot let this opportunity pass. Immigration reform would help families, it would help our economy, and it would improve our security. More importantly, it’s the right thing to do.

Fact Check: Dolan and other amnesty supporters use the term “reform” to describe amnesty. Reform, however, suggests a step of improvement, and it is by no means clear how rewarding people who break our immigration laws with legal status and eventual citizenship is any kind of improvement.

Past amnesties were followed by more illegal immigration, which really isn’t surprising. Usually we get more of the behavior we reward.

Dolan says that amnesty will help “families,” presumably meaning the families of illegal aliens. But his concern for families doesn’t seem to extend the families of Americans, particularly poor Americans, who have to compete with illegal aliens for jobs and government services.

As for helping the economy, Dolan claims that illegal aliens pay over $10 billion in federal, state and local taxes each year. But even if this is true it does not mean that such payment is a net benefit. It must be weighed against the cost of government services that illegal aliens use. Ed Rubenstein, president of ESR research, calculates that services used by illegal aliens annually exceed the taxes they pay by a margin of $27 billion.

 In his article Dolan doesn’t make an argument for his claim that amnesty will increase national security. Some on his side maintain that with amnesty we will be able to identify illegals who are terrorists. It’s most doubtful, however, that terrorists would have any desire to step forward and be identified.

More to the point, amnesty will weaken our national security by weakening our rule of law and inviting more foreigners to ignore our borders and national sovereignty.

Finally, amnesty—despite Dolan’s assertion—isn’t the right thing to do. He cites the biblical precept of “welcoming the stranger,” ignoring that this precept in scripture involves voluntary charity to “strangers” within the Christian community. It is not a command to countries to surrender their sovereignty and national interest so that anyone can come and settle.

 Amnesty promotes lawlessness and weakens the bonds of our country. Truthfully described, it’s an immoral imperative.

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