Do our lives reflect our traditional beliefs on immigration issues?

I’m writing in response to a May 23 letter to the editor, “Su casa es mi casa.” Shame on those who insist that undocumented immigrants are like thieves or freeloaders breaking into your home, instead of recognizing our immigrant neighbors as a blessing from God who have many wonderful gifts and personal resources to contribute to our communities. Absolutely nothing is accomplished by demonizing America’s latest wave of immigrants. Our neighbors to the south are living in brutal poverty; please don’t take their desperation to find hard work and a safe home for their families and compare them to criminals.

God help us if we take the poorest, most vulnerable group of people in America and make them our scapegoats for all that ails us. How sad that some disparage the character of the immigrants living among us instead of seeing them for the children of God that they are. At our best we have been a people who have stood with the underdog; a people with high ideals who carefully crafted a constitution to safeguard the dignity of all.

God speaks to us in our scripture and our creeds: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” (Statue of Liberty); “All men are created equal ... endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights” (Declaration of Independence); “As often as you do it to the least of these my brothers and sisters you do it to me” (Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 25:40); “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you were once aliens in the land of Egypt” (God Almighty, Leviticus 19:33–34).

There are no qualifiers in “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The land we call home has known much greatness; but have we the people learned from our mistakes? The trail of tears, slavery, Jim Crow laws; all were the result of “good” people failing to consider the dignity and human rights of their neighbors. As we debate the fate of undocumented immigrants many of whom have lived and worked among us for years, put down roots and raised families, we must realize that this debate is about who “we” are as a people.

Once what mattered most in this country was being a good neighbor. In fact, faith and politics intersect exactly at the question asked 2,000 years ago: who is my neighbor? While it’s clear that the survival of our Hispanic brothers and sisters hangs in the balance, we need to wake up and realize that our moral standing as a people, our collective integrity and our very souls hang in the balance as well.

Terry Vicars, Youngstown