Jose Gomez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, says that the immigration system in the United States is broken and is having a devastating impact on families. Writing in the Angelus News, Gomez says that the US has a lot to do to fix its current policies on immigration and that people need to learn to view one another as family.
“Our system is broken and needs to be modernized to meet the realities of a global economy,” the archbishop writes, declaring that there are far too many families being ripped apart by uncertainty over their legal status, deportations and delays in the US visa process, which can last for years and in some instances for decades. Gomez also objects to the fact that undocumented immigrants are often hired by companies that exploit them, as such immigrants have no legal workplace rights.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is the biggest in the United States with around five million members, takes the issue of immigration very seriously, perhaps understandably given that there the nation plays home to millions of immigrants and their relatives. Gomez says that Catholics need to reach out in support of immigration reform and ignore borders and ethnic differences to support others in the name of love.
“We are called to love and love cannot be divided,” the archbishop claims. “We can’t close our hearts to any of our brothers and sisters without closing our hearts to God.”