Msgr. Paul V. Garrity
Most people recognize the name Anne Frank having read her Diary in grade school. She was a German-born Jewish girl who moved to Amsterdam with her family in 1934 as Hitler and the Nazi Party took over Germany. The German occupation of the Netherlands in 1941 put all Jewish people at risk. She and her family hid in an Amsterdam home for 2 years to escape being arrested by the Gestapo. Sadly, the family was discovered in 1944 and shipped off to die as victims of the Holocaust.
Today, fear is sweeping across our country not unlike the fear that Anne Frank and other Jewish people experienced in Germany, France, Poland and the Netherlands in the early 1940s. The US Government has promised mass deportations for people who are in this country without proper documentation. For the most part, these are poor people who have left their homelands because of violence and poverty. They have come to the richest country in the world, hoping and praying for a better life for themselves and their children.
There is no question that there is a crisis with regard to immigration that has been ignored by Congress for years. One result is the quagmire that we are now facing. Instead of looking for real solutions to this crisis that are humane and respectful of human dignity, fear is being spread throughout the United States. This should bring shame to all Americans. The by-product of this fear is the reluctance of immigrants to report crime which makes them targets for exploitation. Fear is stopping immigrants from going to their places of work, from sending their children to school. Fear is preventing them from going to Church and even visiting food pantries. Fear is a paralyzing reality that is causing untold paranoia among people who see deportation as their very worst nightmare.
The parallels to Anne Frank and her family are chilling. How did we get here? Very sadly, the answer is that a very slim majority of people are very happy with what is taking place. Oblivious to the pain and suffering that is happening within the undocumented community, these are people who are content with the fear and trembling that is being unleashed. Labeling undocumented people as dirt-bags, vermin, aliens and criminals, as some government officials have done, raises the specter that more is at play here than upholding immigration laws. Ultra-nationalism, racism and jingoism have been part of American history and are no strangers to some of the language that is being used today.
Last week, Pope Francis took the extraordinary step of addressing a strong letter to the American bishops, decrying the announced US policy of mass deportations. He calls attention to the fact that Mary and Joseph were refugees in Egypt shortly after Jesus was born. The life of their son was being threatened by the Roman authorities and forced them to flee for their own safety and the safety of their newborn. Their motivation was not much different than the motivation of so many immigrants today who have come to the US, seeking to escape the violence and corruption in their home countries.
In his closing paragraph, Pope Francis addresses himself to all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. He also encourages all to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring people closer together and to avoid walls of ignominy.
If the cruelty of mass deportations is what a majority of our citizenry desires, we have deeper problems than we realize. Real Americans, however, are better than what is taking place in our name. We are compassionate people. We are generous people. We all agree that we have an immigration crisis; but we should also agree that what is taking place is not the humane way to respond. Our broken immigration system desperately needs to be reformed and until it is, border walls will continue to be a band aid on a cancer.
Msgr. Garrity is a Senior Priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish and School in Lynn.
