From ........ National Catholic Reporter
February 18, 1994
page 4
EXCLUDING ILLEGAL immigrants from federal disaster assistance such as earthquake aid "denigrates human values," U.S. bishops told Congress in a Feb. 4 letter delivered by Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J., chairman of the bishops Migration Committee. The House on Feb. 3 approved $8.6 billion in disaster relief for victims of the Los Angeles earthquake. The bill included a compromise provision that allows people who are in the United States illegally to receive emergency food, medical help and shelter, but no cash or long-term housing.
- END QUOTE -
From .......... NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER
February 4, 1994
page 6
AN OFFICIAL of the U.S. bishops' migration agency criticized the Clinton administration in congressional testimony Jan. 24 for its "unwise and unjust efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants" from its health care reform plan. Richard Parkins, director of refugee and immigration policy for the bishops' Office of Migration and Refugee Services, also condemned the Clinton plan for including abortion coverage in its comprehensive benefits package.
- END QUOTE -
From ........ National Catholic Reporter
September 9, 1994
page 4
CALIFORNIA'S CATHOLIC bishops have urged voters to reject an initiative on the November ballot that would deny health, education and welfare services to illegal immigrants. The anti immigration initiative rejected by the bishops, Proposition 187, is the most hotly contested measure facing the state's voters Nov. 8.
- END QUOTE -
From ......... Associated Press
July 17, 1996
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Distressed by a House-passed measure that would allow states to remove the children of undocumented immigrants from public classrooms, the United States [Roman] Catholic Conference took its case to the White House Wednesday.
Speaking on behalf of the nation's Catholic bishops, Newark Archbishop Theodore McCarrick urged President Clinton to veto any immigration bill that includes the schooling provision.
"This legislation is harmful legislation," said McCarrick, who until recently chaired the National Conference of [Roman] Catholic Bishops' migration committee. "We feel it makes kids suffer for whatever the faults of their parents have been."
Clinton, who has called the measure a "poison pill," made an impromptu stop with Vice President Al Gore during the archbishop's meeting with White House chief of staff Leon Panetta.
McCarrick said the president reiterated his dislike for the schooling measure authored by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif. "The president himself said that he hates the Gallegly amendment," the archbishop said in an interview. "I said we do too and we feel this is bad law."
While Clinton may hate the amendment, "Congressman Gallegly hates the idea of continuing to force American taxpayers to continue educating those with no legal right to be in this country," said Gallegly spokesman Jim Maiella.
The schooling provision -- which would affect only the foreign-born children of undocumented immigrants, not those born on U.S. soil -- has emerged as a major stumbling block.
The House and Senate have passed separate immigration bills, and a conference committee has not yet been convened in part due to differences over the school provision.
- END QUOTE -