Back in February, I attended a talk at New York Encounter, an annual cultural event in the heart of NYC. The talk was about the Catholic view on immigration law in the United States, and it featured Mario Russell, the executive director of the Center for Migration Studies, who happens to be a very kind and brilliant man.
In the talk, Mario described how the failures of the American immigration system had led to a “moral convulsion” across the country—and he offered thoughts on how people of faith generally and Catholics in particular are called to service and moral witness in this moment. I was pretty blown away by his insights, and I wanted to hear more. So, that’s the conversation I bring you today.
Some of the topics Mario and I cover include:
His journey into this work
The current state of the immigration debate in the U.S.
Fact versus narrative on immigration
Deportation as a proxy for the debate about immigration as a whole
Immigration and the Catholic imagination
Americans’ contradictory views on immigration
Hope in this Lenten season
There are many ways to think about immigration policy in this country. As a matter of border management. As an economic question. As a national security concern.
But for Mario and the organization he leads, it all comes back to the human person—how we think about our obligations to our fellow human beings. On that point, I’d like to offer, as a way of framing the conversation you’re about to hear, a passage from an old favorite of mine, Thomas Merton. Merton describes an epiphany he had while on a trip outside the monastery where he lived.
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers… I have the immense joy of being a man, a member of the race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.
The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) is a think tank and an educational institute devoted to the study of international migration, to the promotion of understanding between immigrants and receiving communities, and to public policies that safeguard the dignity and rights of migrants, refugees, and newcomers.
