Illegals Threatened With Deportation
They are here illegally. They might not be welcomed here much longer! They are causing too many problems! They must leave!
That’s what we are hearing today.
Because they aren’t citizens, and they have caused a lot of grievances to us, we are seriously thinking of deporting them. 100,000 of them. After all, they have violated the law by coming here!
No. It’s not the United States saying this. It is Turkey.
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s prime minister has warned that he might deport up to 100,000 Armenians living in Turkey without citizenship after resolutions passed by U.S. and Swedish lawmakers defining World War One-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Of course, the reason why so many Armenians are in Turkey is because they were displaced by a major earthquake in 1988. They had to find a place to live, a place to work. They found one. It was an issue of life or death to them. And so it might be again — if they are kicked out of Turkey.
Now do you understand why the issue of immigration is more than an issue of what the law currently says? One can make bad laws. Nations can possess bad laws. One can enforce bad laws. One can use bad laws for racial politics (which is what Turkey is planning to do). But we must make one thing clear: if the law is bad, it has no moral force – whether it is in Turkey, or if it is in the United States. And if it is a bad law, we must work for the welfare of the people being oppressed — for example, the 100,000 + Armenians in Turkey who might soon find themselves struggling even more for their dear lives! Pray for them!
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The silence on this post is haunting…
Sam
Agreed! I was thinking the same thing yesterday. Though of course, we must be careful and not assume what that silence means. It would be nice to hear some reaction, but, without it, thought it is eerie, we have to read it in charity.
I’m fascinated by the topic and would welcome more discussion, but I would rather wait for someone else to get the ball rolling because I scarcely know where to start to form a firm opinion. I read the House and Senate resolutions mentioned in the passage you cited, but not cluing in on why Turkey thinks deporting the Armenians would help the diplomatic situation any.
The USCCB and some individual bishops get tagged as “liberal” any time they speak up for immigrants and immigrant rights. But this is an unfair label because the Church has historically supported the rights of migrants in all countries, and the bishops’ pastoral of migrants in this country seems in accord with the Church teaching. As your post reminds us, support for the Armenians in Turkey would hardly qualify anyone as politically liberal. It just seems to be about basic human dignity. In torture debates, occasional commenters will say that Veritatis Splendor 80 couldn’t possibly be saying that torture is intrinsically evil because that would mean deportation is intrinsically evil, too. “No way” they say to that.
For my own part, I support an orderly process for admitting immigrants into the country and thought that deporting “line jumpers” – immigrants who do not follow the legal process for admission – would be just and fair. The problem is that the specific legislation and enforcement to accomplish this process is almost always called unjust by bishops whose judgment I generally trust. So some recalibration of my political views on the subject is needed.
Anyway, I’m open on immigrant rights (and responsibilities) in general and hope for more discussion (preferably led by someone who knows more about this than me).
Spambot (please, it would help to change nicks) the big thing is the Armenians in Turkey are being threatened because they are also the ones wanting recognition of the genocide. It’s basically saying “speak up too much, and you are out of here.”
Since 1988? After 22 years, the emergency “issue of life and death to them” is over.
There is no moral requirement to allow ones hospitality to be taken advantage of.
Micha
22 years is short for refugee situations. Indeed, look in the Sudan, Ethiopia, and other places, and you will see this is so. And it is quite clear Turkey is only threatening this to silence them about the genocide of the past. It’s racial politics and in bad measure.