Catholic Social Doctrine and Immigration

Principles, Proposals and Analysis of Current Conditions on the Southwest Border

Bishop Edward Burns:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God, Father Almighty, grant us the grace to work tirelessly for justice, solidarity, and peace, so that all your children may enjoy the freedom to choose whether to migrate or to stay.

Grant us the courage to denounce all the horrors in our world and to combat every injustice that mars the beauty of your children and the harmony of our common home.

Sustain us by the power of your Spirit so that we may reflect your tender love to every migrant whom you place in our path, and to spread, in hearts and in every situation, the culture of encounter and of prayer.

We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Allow me to give you a sense of how we’ll proceed. Paul will begin with a presentation on the foundational context of where we are, as Christians and as Catholics, regarding the principles behind the issue of migration. After that, I’ll speak briefly on the spiritual and theological aspects of this topic. Then Paul will return to provide insight into what’s currently happening at the border. All of this will take place within about 45 minutes, including time for questions and answers.

Paul Hunker:

It’s a real pleasure to present with my pastor—my bishop. I’m a Dallas resident. I was the Chief Counsel of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Dallas for about 20 years. I retired, and I’m now in private practice.

I want to tell a story about why Bishop Burns is responsible for that—and also, I think maybe the organizers too—for having the bishop here. Because if the former Chief Counsel of ICE gives a talk about what the Catholic Church teaches on migration, the bishop may need to say annul us, so feel free to pipe up when you need to say that, okay?

Let me give a brief roadmap. I’m going to talk about what the Catholic—well, Bishop Burns already basically did the roadmap. So let’s talk about what the Catholic Church teaches about immigration.

First big point—and Bishop, you mentioned this in your intro—there’s a right not to immigrate.

Pope Francis said the Church stands at the side of all who work to defend each person’s right to live with dignity, first and foremost by exercising the right not to immigrate and to contribute to the development of one’s country of origin.

In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis said that ideally, unnecessary migration ought to be avoided. This entails creating, in countries of origin, the conditions needed for a dignified life and integral development.

Well, I’m no expert on international development, but it seems like it hasn’t worked very well. I’m going to move on from there.

Also, on your chairs—and feel free to take pictures of it if you don’t have a copy—is some reference material: on the Catholic social doctrine on immigration, some studies on immigration, and some perspectives on immigration. I think this might be emailed to all participants, but we do have some hard copies there. I think it’s a helpful document if you just want to look at the resources of what the Church says about immigration.

The Catechism and National Responsibility

Okay, so we’ll start with the Catechism. The Catechism sets forth a concise summary of what the Church teaches. Point 2241:

“The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”

And then the next point:

“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various judicial conditions.”

So a couple of key points: a nation’s obligation is limited to the extent they are able. And I think that relates to that second point—that political authorities, for the sake of the common good, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various judicial conditions.

So, you need border police, you need ports of entry, you need to have proceedings to deal with non-citizens that are here illegally.

Pope Francis reflects this. He’s often very blunt and just sort of says things very clearly. On 60 Minutes recently, he was asked about the United States and the incredible immigration situation we’re having right now. He said, “Maybe you have to send them back. I don’t know. Each case ought to be considered humanely.”

So, he’s being realistic here. And I think the Catholic social doctrine, as I develop this—you know, virtue is the mean between two vices. So, to overstate things, maybe you could say the Trump administration perspective is one side, and the Biden administration perspective is the other.

The Catholic social doctrine is not too hot, not too cold—just right.

The Principles of Catholic Social Doctrine

So I think to understand these points in the Catechism, it’s helpful to look at the underlying principles of Catholic social doctrine. I think the three most relevant ones are:

1. The universal destination of human goods

2. Solidarity

3. The common good

I’m sure others relate to immigration, but I’m going to focus on those three. A lot of this comes from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church—great document. If you don’t have it, I highly recommend it.

1. Universal Destination of Goods

Pope Francis sums this up in Evangelii Gaudium:

“With due respect for the autonomy and culture of every nation, we must never forget that the planet belongs to all mankind and is meant for all mankind. The mere fact that some people are born in places with fewer resources or less development does not justify the fact they are living with less dignity.”

And so, based on this, I think this is where we understand that private property is not an absolute right. Given that God created everything, no person can say that his property is absolutely his, because everything we have comes from God.

So, man should share his property not simply out of charity but out of justice—since, in justice, he doesn’t have absolute dominion over everything he owns.

And I think you can look at the preferential option for the poor as a specification of the universal destination of human goods.

Private property is recognized by the Church. In Centesimus Annus, John Paul II said:

“The right to possess the things necessary for one’s personal development and the development of one’s family—in whatever form that right may assume—is still valid today.”

And how does that idea relate to the universal destination of human goods? I think it’s the perspective that the person has a right to private property, but he has to have that private property in the context of appreciating that property is for everyone.

So how does this relate to immigration?

I think you can think of the obligation of a prosperous nation to welcome foreigners as an example of the universal destination of goods. Just as a wealthy person, in justice, should share his goods with the needy, a prosperous nation should welcome those in need.

2. Solidarity

From the Catechism:

“Solidarity recognizes the bond of interdependence between individuals and peoples, and a desire for the good of all and each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.”

This is biblically expressed—I kind of chuckled today during Mass when they talked about respecting the rights of the resident alien. I thought that was a nice point today, given my talk.

This is biblically expressed:

“The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
—Leviticus 19:33

So, solidarity would indicate that the bonds between everyone in the world are greater than the bonds that we have with other U.S. citizens—which are significant and real. But they’re richer—we’re all children of God.

And so, when one thinks about immigration, one has to keep that principle in mind.

3. The Common Good

Gaudium et Spes says:

“The common good is the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.”

The Common Good and the Right to Regulate Borders

The Catechism says that each human community possesses the common good, which permits it to be recognized as such. It is in the political community that its most complete realization is found. It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common good of civil society—its citizens and intermediate bodies.

From this, you can see why a country can regulate immigration and guard its borders to protect the common good. While we are all brothers and sisters across the world, the United States has a particular obligation to care for its own citizens and lawful residents.

Professor Mary Ann Glendon once said that the nation-state, for all its weaknesses, allows great numbers of people to live together in peace and freedom, with the space allowed for the exercise of virtue that promotes the common good.

So, you can see how the common good could be negatively impacted by open borders or unregulated, irregular immigration. This can lead to the depression of wages, higher prices, and strain on healthcare and education systems, for example. Many arguments made by those opposed to immigration are framed in terms of how immigration harms the common good.

Groups like the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA promote studies that claim immigration harms the United States in various ways. But there are also many credible studies showing the benefits of immigration, even undocumented or low-skilled immigration, for the economy. I’ve included some of those in the reference materials I provided.

I’m not an economist or a sociologist, but I tend to find the pro-immigration economists more credible. In fact, most economists support immigration. Anti-immigration thinking, in many ways, reflects a “people are the problem” mentality. Remember what the “science” said in the 1970s? That we were overpopulated and needed strict population control. But now, we see the opposite—demographically, many countries, including ours, are in trouble due to declining birth rates.

Immigration, while not sufficient on its own, helps mitigate that decline. Many anti-immigration groups are connected to population control advocates. Their arguments often stem from those perspectives. But we know—and must affirm—that people are not the problem. People are the solution.

So, while I’m not saying everyone should be allowed to enter the country, and I’ll speak more on the current border situation shortly, we must keep a proper perspective rooted in Catholic social teaching.

So, that was a lot! I know many of you are already well-versed in the Church’s social doctrine, but I wanted to give that overview. Now, Bishop Burns will say a few words, and then I’ll return to discuss what’s happening at the border, why, and what solutions might align with Catholic teaching.

Bishop Edward Burns:

The Immigrant God

Thanks, Paul. And with it—it just gives me the opportunity to identify how and why it is that our care for migrants, and the care that we have for the immigration issue, is so much a part of our DNA.

It’s, as Paul indicated, very much a part of our faith—very much a part of our tradition and who we are. So it’s important that as we establish our relationship with God, we recognize that God is an immigrant God.

God, as an immigrant God—God immigrated in order to become one of us. God immigrated from the heavens to earth. He had to cross a border just to become one of us, and so find Himself in our world, in our lives, in our culture, in our day.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And so, the immigrant who dwells among us—we, of course, know that we would treat them as we would treat Christ Himself.

Now, not only did He immigrate from the heavens to the earth, but when born in Bethlehem, the angel appears to Joseph and says:

“Joseph, quick, take the child and His mother and flee, for Herod is coming after Him.”

What they had to do is—they had to cross the border into Egypt. They had to go into another country. They were refugees.

And at that moment—we don’t have anything in Scripture that talks about it—but someone had to be in Egypt to welcome the Holy Family. Someone had to welcome the Blessed Mother, and Joseph, and the child Jesus. Which gives all the more depth to the words:

“For I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Christ Identifies With the Detained

You know, therein lies—I love the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ is like us in all things but sin.

When I was chaplain at the prison, I had to remind the inmates:

“Guys, Jesus was arrested. He was detained. He was taken into custody. He knows what you go through.”

And it’s interesting—even with the immigrant—He knows what the immigrant goes through. And so, it’s in our DNA as Catholics and as Christians that we have a relationship with a God who is an immigrant God.

The DNA of Our Nation

So too, let’s also look at the DNA of us as Americans. It’s in our DNA—in our patriotic DNA—for the words that we see on the Statue of Liberty are so much a part of our tradition:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses longing to breathe free.”

Come. And then with that—to understand who we are also as a country.

Well, as Paul says, every country has a right to protect its borders. Every family has a right to a better life. And in that—don’t fathers and mothers want the best for their children?

And within the Catholic Church, and all that we’re facing right now—when people come at me with what the Catholic Church is doing, and they are at odds with it—I say to them:

“Look, the Catholic Church doesn’t protect the border. It’s not our job. We’re not responsible for the border.”

But we are responsible when someone is in need and they stand right in front of us—because we are called to serve them as we would serve Jesus Himself. Hence again, the words:

“For I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Seeing the Image of God in Every Person

We have to recognize that the people we encounter—they’re made in the image and likeness of God. That’s what we see. And that is why we serve them.

Now, you look at the universality of the Church—and I cherish the fact that no matter where I travel in the world—and I just got back from Africa, Kenya, Uganda, with our good people from Catholic Relief Services—

I don’t care where you travel in the world—when you go to a Catholic church, you know you’re home. You know you’re home.

So to all the immigrants, with all the struggles that they go through, no matter where they go in the world—when they go to a Catholic church, they know they’re home. And when they go to their home, they see us as their brothers and sisters.

And in it—do we have a responsibility? The impact of the Church in people’s lives is very real. And that’s who we are—and who we were called to be.

Not only does the Church impact people in their lives—it impacts people in their communities. It impacts people in their countries.

The Impact of the Church

And I look at the United States, and I see the impact of the Catholic Church—and I’m glad we celebrate it.

Many of you know that in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., it speaks of how the Catholic Church has impacted our country. For in Statuary Hall, where there are two statues from every state—in Statuary Hall, there are four priests and one nun.

Let’s look at California. Junípero Serra’s statue is right there. What was so beautiful about that is that Pope Francis gave his address to the country in his pastoral visit to the joint session of Congress the day after he canonized Junípero Serra on the grounds of Catholic University. And there was an argument in California about removing Junípero Serra and putting someone else in place.

So Pope Francis was walking through Statuary Hall and he’s going out to the balcony to greet the thousands that are out there on the lawn. He stops at Junípero Serra’s statue and everyone prayed in silence, which prompted the Governor of California at the time to say, “That statue’s not going anywhere.”

So with Junípero Serra, we have from Hawaii, Father Damien of Molokai. And then Wisconsin, Father Jacques Marquette. Arizona, we have Father Eusebio Kino. And then the sister from the state of Washington—Mother Joseph, a Sister of Charity. With that, also from Statuary Hall, the impact of the Catholic Church on our culture and our society and our country.

You go into the chambers of the House of Representatives, and as you know in there, you know, there’s marble reliefs all around the top of it. And the marble reliefs all around the top of it are of lawmakers all throughout history. All throughout history. And in it, they have two popes and one saint. And the two popes are Gregory the Great and Pope Innocent III—their work with canon law in the Church and also how it helped form European law, which in turn helped form U.S. law. The saint: King of France, St. Louis. And then all of the figures around the chamber of the House of Representatives look at one central figure. They all face Moses—because Moses is the supreme lawgiver.

My friends, it’s just important for us to know who we are in society—and as Americans too. And we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. And with it, we try to build up our society here, hopefully as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Let me turn it back over to Paul, who is going to then share with us a few things about the law.

Current U.S. Immigration Law and Catholic Social Teaching

Paul Hunker:
I’ll make one point about our current immigration law. It’s very unforgiving. And as Catholics, we’re very forgiving people.

You know, for example, if someone had entered illegally and they marry a citizen and they have kids and they have family—they’ve been here a long time—immigration law is so strict that that person may not have any pathway to citizenship. So I think that’s something… you know, to have a more just immigration system, you need a more equitable system that will allow people to regularize their status, even if they illegally enter and things like that. Right now, it doesn’t do that.

I got to know Bishop Burns when he came here from Alaska, and his… his coming to Dallas coincided with the Trump Administration, and a lot of fear in the immigrant community, and a lot of less flexibility that we were given.

The law is fairly inflexible. And a lot of the kind of the equity that is done is done by the ICE attorneys, in terms of our ability to sort of dismiss cases and not proceed on cases. And then when President Trump became president, that sort of was restricted.

A Personal Story of Discretion and Providence

Right after President Trump was elected, I got a call from an attorney. He was representing a 21-year-old Vietnamese man who had gotten in some juvenile trouble—nothing too serious. When he was 18, he had a conviction for possession of Adderall. And he sort of got his life together, was working.

When he was 21, he went to Vietnam to help his dad immigrate. And he came back at DFW airport, and they realized he had the conviction. Under the immigration law, he had no ability to stay here. Even though he’s a lawful permanent resident, he’d been here a long time, the law gave him no ability to remain here.

And that’s sort of an example of how there used to be more flexibility in the law, and I think we should advocate for more flexibility.

So his attorney called me and said, “Paul, would you dismiss the case?”

Well, this… we’re in a different world here. This is the Trump Administration. You know, and my hands are sort of more… I have less flexibility.

“I’ll think about it.”

Bishop Burns Visits the Detention Center

So a week later, Bishop Burns, as a good pastor and concerned about his flock—many of whom are non-citizens, many of whom are undocumented—wanted a tour of our detention center.

So we took Bishop Burns on a tour, and we’re in one of the pods. So detention is often like—it’s like a dormitory. Many of you have probably done prison ministry. Like 130, 140 people in there. And Bishop Burns is very pastoral. He’s handing out prayer cards, he’s praying with people.

And then this kid comes up to us, and he’s got a rosary around his neck. And I can tell he’s Vietnamese. I’ve had a number of Vietnamese friends. I know he’s Viet. And I’m like, “You’re a Trần Nguyễn, right?” And he’s like, “Yeah.” Like, “You came at the border—you came at DFW two weeks ago?” He’s like, “How do you know who I am?”

And the bishop is right next to me, and I’m like, “I’m going to get back to your case.”

So I go back to my office. And what did John Paul II say? There are no coincidences. Like, what are the odds of this kid coming up to me when Bishop Burns is right there?

So I said, “What the hell.” We dismissed the case.

I told Bishop Burns, “Bishop Burns, you know, you are responsible for this.”

Moving into Private Practice

And that’s one of the reasons I did go into private practice. I worked—especially, I think with the Trump Administration—working more closely with the Catholic Charities and seeing the good work… there’s someone from Catholic Charities Atlanta back there—the good work they do.

I just went to the CLINIC conference a couple months ago, so it encouraged me to go into private practice. So thank you, Bishop.

But let’s talk about some less edifying topics here—Southwest border.

So, if you think of that fence as our border, that’s not an inaccurate image—the sort of what’s coming north.

(looking at screen)
Okay, so let’s talk about what is actually happening.

This is a little bit hard for you all to see, but it’s from The Washington Post, and it shows sort of monthly immigration from 2014 through 2024.

Migration Numbers Over the Years

So in 2014, we thought, “Oh, 28,000 migrants a month”—we really thought that was a lot of migrants at the Southwest border of entry. That’s a lot of migrants.

And then 2019—this is in the Trump Administration—you see 79,000 migrants in any month kind of showing up at the border.

Then what happens? You have COVID. You have the restrictions. So it goes almost to zero. And then—boom—post-COVID, 2020, the numbers go up.

So in 2023, in December of 2023, you had 248,000 apprehensions on the Southwest border.

Don’t blame the Annunciation House for that problem. Some of you know the issue. They’re the bishop’s site in El Paso. They’re helping the non-citizens that are in the United States because of this crisis.

So anyway, this is sort of a total. And these numbers aren’t even the total apprehensions. These are only people put in immigration court. So that doesn’t count the gotaways—we call them the gotaways.

Who Are the “Gotaways”?

So we were estimating in 2023 there were probably a thousand gotaways a day. So that’s another 600,000–900,000 or so people coming into the country.

Do you want totals?

In fiscal year 2023—which is October 1st through September 30th—in FY 2023, 2.4 million apprehensions on the Southwest border.

That doesn’t include the gotaways, which were about 600,000 to 900,000. You can imagine the conditions on the border.

Shifts in Migrant Origins

These are… so this is the portion from Mexico of the total.

And generally from 2000 on, illegal immigration was going down in Mexico because the conditions were improving. The economy was… it’s pretty flat.

And then you see in 2022, it’s starting to go up.

Why is that? I think there’s… you know, the conditions are worse there. There’s more violence. The economy is not good. So the conditions are going [downhill].

But it’s interesting because you may think that Mexicans are the big group—but Mexicans are not the biggest group.

Rise in Central American Migration

So you see the percentage of Mexicans… Central America—so this is a big group. Guatemala. Doesn’t include Nicaraguans, which is a slightly different moral situation.

So these are Central Americans other than Nicaraguans—those from El Salvador.

These numbers sort of started to increase, especially… they really went up, started to go up under the Obama Administration. And they continued up under the Trump Administration.

Why is that?

Well, it’s not as easy to return a Central American to Central America. With Mexico, we can just turn them back. A lot of family units were traveling together, and we don’t have the detention space for family units. A lot of juveniles were traveling.

Loopholes and Incentives in Juvenile Detention

So one of the things about the immigration law is if you’re under 18 years old and you’re apprehended, and you’re not from Mexico, you’re going to be released in the United States.

That law was signed toward the end of the Bush Administration. And the idea was very well-intentioned. The idea was to kind of give special concern for juveniles.

But what did that do?

That incentivized 16-, 17-year-olds to come to the United States and work. And so you see all the news stories about, you know, the young people being taken advantage of.

And that’s one of the reasons—one of the things—family separation. One of the things that the Trump Administration tried to do was when, like, a Central American family would enter, they would prosecute the parents, and then they would separate the kids, and they would make the kids unaccompanied.

It was truly probably the moment where I was most—probably the only moment I was ashamed to work for DHS—was when that was happening. Because it was the policy of the United States to separate families in order to deter families from coming.

So the idea would be, you know, families—and it wouldn’t work. They kept coming. But it was so horribly unjust that you would intentionally separate the families to deter people from coming.

Public Outcry and Unintended Consequences

There was a big outcry about that. That actually led to the number increasing. Because it was a failure, and so people from Central America decided that, “Oh, even more people can come.”

So the numbers increased.

Then President Trump did what’s called “Remain in Mexico,” which sent Central Americans back to Mexico. And that did deter the numbers, because the perception was—the perception that got back to Central America—was that you weren’t going to be automatically let in.

So that deterred people.

And that’s really… we’re sort of running out of time.

I’ll talk for a couple more minutes, and we’ll have some time for questions.

Great book about Central American migration—this one that won a Pulitzer Prize.

You also—broken families are a huge problem, everywhere—but in Central America…

This is the story about a woman—she’s a single mother, she has two kids. She can’t support her kids in Guatemala. She comes to the United States. She works. Kids bounce from, you know, Tía to abuela, and you know, they’re not treated well.

And then Enrique—when he’s 16—he comes, and he gets, you know, almost killed coming north. And then he gets in trouble when he’s in the United States.

And it really kind of reflects a lot of what’s happening with immigration. It’s sort of—it’s an immigration system that is sort of separating families, in the sense that the parents come to work, and the kids stay behind, and the kids come later.