The U.S. bishops' immigration reform campaign is hitting the Congressional districts of Western Missouri today and tomorrow.
Bishop Robert Finn, ordinary of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese, launched the U.S. bishops' "Justice to Immigrants" campaign in January with a postcard campaign (There was a sign-up table in the narthex of my parish church.), and the diocesan Human Rights Office has taken up the challenge.
Today, Missouri Catholics joined an interfaith group for a rally outside the Kansas City offices of Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat. They should be gathering even as I post this blog. Tomorrow the group travels about 55 miles north to rally outside the offices of Republican Congressman Sam Graves office in St. Joseph, Mo. (1:30 p.m. at 201 South 8th Street).
The campaign is asking for five key legislative reforms:
- a pathway to citizenship for the 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants
- better treatment of immigrant families
- legal avenues for migrant workers
- protection of immigrants’ due-process rights
- examination of the root causes of migration, which is usually poverty
