The Pope’s Visit: Is Mass Immigration a Moral Imperative? (NPG Footnote)
- David Simcox
- December 1, 1995
- Forum Papers
- Forum Paper
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An NPG Forum Paper
(NPG Footnote)
by David Simcox
December 1995
Pope John Paul H’s visit to the United States in October was a critical stage in the lobbying campaign for high immigration that the U.S. Catholic hierarchy has waged for three decades. The U.S. Catholic bishops have been on a special offensive since 1994 in the face of California voters’ support for Proposition 187’s curbs on illegal aliens and rising public and Congressional support for lower legal immigration.
Top Lobbyist from Rome
The Pope’s visit capped this campaign, coming during Congress’s consideration of bills cutting legal immigration, corn-bating illegal entry and abuse of political asylum, and barring immigrants’ from welfare. John Paul II made the presumed moral obligation of Americans to accept more immigration a key theme of his homilies in New York, New Jersey, and Baltimore, and in his meeting with President Clinton. He voiced the hope that “America would persevere in its own best traditions” as a ” haven for generation after generation of new arrivals.”
The House of Representatives’ proposed reductions (HR 2202) of about 25 percent in legal immigration are modest at best, falling far short of the deep cuts needed to end immigration’s accelerating effect on U.S. population growth. The cuts would roll back part of the 40 percent increase in legal immigration rushed through Congress in 1990 by a coalition of immigration advocates in which the American Bishops played a central lobbying role. The current bills in both chambers would also provide new tools to stop the annual growth of more than 300,000 in the number of illegal aliens living here.
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David Simcox is a former NPG Senior Advisor. From 1985 to 1992 he was executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. From 1956 to 1985, Simcox was a career diplomat of the U.S. Department of State, with service in diplomatic posts in Latin America, Africa, Europe, and in Washington. His diplomatic assignments involved formulation of policy for labor, population and migration issues in such countries as Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Brazil and the nations of Indo-China. Simcox is a frequent contributor on population, immigration and Latin American matters to national newspapers and periodicals and has testified on several occasions before congressional committees on immigration, labor and identification policies. He holds degrees from the University of Kentucky, American University and the National War College. Simcox is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and saw service in the Korean conflict. If you are affiliated with the media and would like to schedule an interview with David, please contact us at 703-370-9510.