Priest resists anti-immigrant push
By NANCY HAND
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Douglas,
Ariz.
This remote town on the U.S./Mexican border is the current No. 1
crossing point for migrant workers, ground zero in the increasingly heated
national debate around immigration, border enforcement and the implications of
each in a globalized world.
For most presidential candidates, the border this year is way off
the list of debate issues. But not for the conservative Reform Party
presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, who recently visited Douglas and seemed to
feed off the discontent of ranchers, some of whom are up in arms about what
they describe as a slow motion invasion of undocumented
immigrants.
As an invited guest of the ranchers organization, Cochise
County Concerned Citizens, Buchanan characterized the situation as a
wholesale invasion of America and a wholesale violation of
the rights of American citizens.
If Im elected president, he pledged, it
will be stopped cold.
Neither the migrants nor the local residents, it seems, want to be
at the center of this debate, but their lives are caught up in a push/pull of
global economic and political forces much larger than Douglas.
A lone figure
Amid the ranchers anger and Buchanans bravado, a lone
figure took up the case of the Mexicans crossing the border. Fr. Robert Carney
stood outside the auditorium where Buchanan and the ranchers were meeting. He
understands the ranchers position, is sympathetic to many of their
concerns, but he remains a reluctant advocate of justice for the immigrants
who, he said, are beaten down every step of the way.
Tensions have been on the rise between migrants and some residents
in Douglas -- a town of long-standing, mostly Anglo, ranching families and
others of just as long-standing Mexican-American heritage.
Buchanan toured the border and addressed about 50 local residents
at Douglas Cochise College. These American ranchers are the ones
who pay [for] the governments failure to protect our borders,
Buchanan told journalists and supporters.
Ranchers and other local residents told Buchanan of property
damage caused by migrants, trash left on their property and of being kept awake
nights by the noise of migrants crossing their land.
Buchanan said he would build a double or triple fence, impose
sanctions on those who employ undocumented workers and bring in the National
Guard to beef up border enforcement, if necessary.
With ranchers warning that they may be forced to use deadly
force to protect themselves and their family members, and the numbers of
migrants attempting to cross in the Douglas area continuing to rise
dramatically, the tensions appear likely to escalate.
Carney, the local Catholic pastor, is among those local residents
caught up in the border war. He was the sole protester at Buchanans Jan.
19 appearance in Douglas. He stood alone outside the Cochise College auditorium
while several of his parishioners filed inside with other Buchanan
supporters.
I was very apprehensive of going out there at all,
said Carney. Youre facing some pretty intimidating groups out
there. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought somebody needs to
pay attention to the reasons the people are coming here. I thought,
Ive got to do it.
Carney carried a hand-lettered sign bearing a quote from Martin
Luther King, Jr., whose birthday was observed just two days earlier:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
I can empathize with [the ranchers], said Carney.
Im in favor of them being relieved of some of [these
problems].
But Carney feels most of the media coverage has been unfair to the
migrant workers, portraying them as freeloaders and criminals. A small
percentage might be criminals, he said, but for the vast majority,
they have no other choice but to face these kinds of dangers. Its not
about making a living or putting something in the bank, it just boils down to
pure survival. And, he said, people are beaten down every step of
the way, the victims of abuse by coyotes (those who claim to help
refugees cross the border), thieves, officials on both sides of the border and
armed ranchers. And for them to be met with turning the head away,
said Carney, thats bothersome to me.
Hard for everyone
Carney has also spoken about the issue within his parish, which
includes ranchers and border patrol agents. Its difficult,
said Carney, because I want to please everybody. I dont want
anybody mad at me. But then I have to get myself out of the way and read the
gospel and the scriptures as the truth that they are. And they tell me to feed
the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger. I dont speak from my
own agenda and I dont attack anyone. There are a few who dont agree
with me. I listen. We dialogue. But its just hard for everyone.
Carney opposes further militarization of the border, believing it
would only increase tensions and the potential for violence. Instead, he said,
the United States should address the larger structural causes, such as trade
policies, that are forcing migrants northward.
Carney also objects to Buchanans position against all
immigration -- whether legal or illegal. Buchanan pledged not only to put a
halt to illegal immigration but also to drastically reduce legal immigration if
elected, in order to prevent the Balkanization of America. In a
campaign appearance in California the preceding day, Buchanan stated that
immigration is damaging to the cultural fabric of the country.
It certainly does seem to border on racism, said
Carney, and its forgetting how all of this country came to be
through immigration. I think [presidential candidate Bill] Bradley said it
recently: Unless youre a Native American or you were forced to come here
through slavery, youre an immigrant. As part of his seminary
training, Carney learned about his own familys immigration history.
My Irish ancestors went through similar circumstances, he said,
famine, no hope for a future. My grandmother worked as an indentured
servant for four years to pay her boat passage here.
Carney believes certain commonly shared beliefs in the United
States, combined with Buchanan-type rhetoric, are to blame for the current high
tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in the country. The tremendous
competition that is part of our society, he said, the
individualism, to be a success at any cost is seen as something for people to
emulate. And theres a feeling that, I did it, so therefore
its available to you and if you dont, youre less than me. I
dont value you. Its blaming immigrants for their
poverty.
Ordained in 1991 and assigned to the Douglas parish four years
ago, Carney said he is dismissed as crazy or as an outsider who
doesnt really understand whats going on by his
detractors in the parish. And he agrees, maybe he doesnt fully understand
the perspective of a generations-old ranching family. But I do understand
what stands before me on any given night, he said, a human being
who is saying, Can you help me? I think that is it.
National Catholic Reporter, February 18,
2000
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