Below is the flyer distributed by Catholic Charities via diocesan churches in February. It speaks for itself. My local parish ran it in the weekly bulletin early in the month. I asked the pastor whether he had included the flyer at his own initiative. Or was it a diktat from the New York archdiocese?
I hoped it had been obligatory. But, no. It was the pastor’s own decision to broadcast it for the benefit of any parishioners who had reason to make use of it.
Herewith:
The flyer was bilingual, printed in both English and Spanish. My parish added an addendum of its own:
Impacting immigrants. The wording skirts the truth. Immigrants are not the targets of ICE. They are lawful applicants for entry into the country. The only people “impacted” by the executive order are illegal migrants—law-breaking aliens, to be precise.
It does not to occur to enough churchmen that illegal migrants are, in effect, thieves. They are stealing resources from American citizens. Perhaps this is because good men, who themselves live on donations, are habituated to seeing the United States as the ultimate donor? I dislike the thought. But I cannot shake it.
The Manhattan Institute estimates that that every new illegal immigrant has an average net fiscal burden of about $130,000. The study finds that immigrants without a high school diploma who arrive in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 24 – the profile “most commonly represented among immigrants who entered the country unlawfully,” – can receive $332,000 in taxpayer-provided benefits over their lifetime, including healthcare and other welfare program benefits. The report also details that “the border crisis is expected to cost $1.15 trillion over the lifetime of the new immigrants who entered the country unlawfully, overstayed a visa, or were paroled.”
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that the 1.1 million illegal aliens granted parole by the Biden-Harris Administration between January 2021 and February 2023 may become “qualified aliens” with a $3 billion per year cost in welfare benefits. An estimated 60 % of illegal immigrant households currently use at least one welfare program, with an estimated $5,692 in federal benefits received annually. Some benefits, such as the EITC and CTC, provide an estimated $3.8 to $4.5 billion in outright cash payments to illegal immigrants.
The House Homeland Security Committee has detailed that Americans have paid billions for hospital expenses, shelter, and the education of the children of illegal immigrants. This included $5.4 billion in “emergency services for undocumented aliens” in FY 2022.
Some years ago, Paul Rahe wrote an indictment of the notion that public provision—state paternalism— is somehow akin to charity. In what he called “American Catholicism’s Pact with the Devil,” he reminded the hierarchy that the virtue of charity is an individual responsibility. He railed against the modern liberal principle that it is “a Christian duty to confiscate other people’s money and redistribute it.”
Perhaps it is time for Catholic Charities to get out of the business of the administrative entitlement state and end its dependence on federal money.
