Catholic Bishops Seek Abolition of Sanctions on Hiring Illegals
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WASHINGTON — With little debate and no dissent, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops today vowed to work to strip current immigration law of its employer sanctions provisions.
The bishops, who have long expressed concern about the effect of sanctions against employers who hire illegal aliens, also said they will work to change the 1986 reform act to allow illegals who arrived after Jan. 1, 1982, to seek legal status.
In their statement, the bishops said the employer sanctions have led to widespread discrimination against Latinos and other “foreign-looking” people who are fearful of running afoul of the law.
Passage of the policy statement comes just two days after the General Accounting Office released a report estimating that more than 500,000 employers have practiced job discrimination while stopping short of saying the findings constitute “a pattern of discrimination” because the survey “did not adequately address the number of authorized workers who were fired, not hired or otherwise affected by the reported practices.”
The bishops, however, said they will seek to document instances of discrimination.
“If enough cases of discrimination can be reported . . . Congress must revisit the law,” the statement said.
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