Pat Dollard

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Los Angeles Times:

Framing the Arizona immigration situation as a “moral crisis,” a group of seven Arizona religious leaders, including Catholic and Methodist bishops, descended on Capitol Hill on Thursday in an “emergency” visit to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform.

“Our role here is to invite dialogue … on this complex issue with many dimensions,” said Bishop Gerald Frederick Kicanas of the Tucson Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church after a morning meeting with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz). “The church believes there’s a need for respect and dignity, and we speak up for people who have their dignity violated.

“We agree there’s a criminal network that has developed and that needs to be addressed,” Bishop Kicanas said. “But border security alone has its limits on what can be accomplished.”

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Kicanas spoke before moving on to meetings with officials from the White House and the Justice and Homeland Security departments. The group planned to ask Justice officials to, at the very least, try to delay the July implementation of the Arizona law to give Congress more time to act on comprehensive changes. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder said Sunday the department was considering a lawsuit to stall its implementation, among other options.

“We are here … not in political capacities but as religious leaders,” Kicanas said, “to prod, encourage and advocate comprehensive immigration reform.” Kicanas just last month said in an memo to his parishioners that the Catholic Church should join lawsuits challenging the Arizona immigration legislation.

Kicanas said they were focusing on McCain because they believed he “has been and continues to be an important voice.” This is despite McCain dropping his longtime support for comprehensive immigration reforms ahead of a strong Republican primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who is attacking McCain’s failed 2007 attempt to pass immigration reforms.

This visit came as polls were released showing the extent of American support for the Arizona immigration legislation. Forty-six percent polled said they strongly supported the measure while 24% were strongly opposed in a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released Thursday. Ten percent of Americans polled called immigration as the nation’s most important problem in a Gallup survey released Wednesday, the highest percentage with that opinion that Gallup had recorded in more than two years.

That result moved that issue into fifth place on the list of what people belieed were the top problems in the U.S. The Gallup survey also found that increased mentions of immigration were most pronounced in the Western states among Republicans and conservatives.

Kicanas said that although he understood there was a “diverse range of opinions” on immigration reform and that he could possibly be going against the opinion of his congregation on the issue, he said there were several realities that prompted his group’s “emergency” Washington visit.

“Illegal immigration is not good for everyone, but we need to look at this situation in broader context,” he said. “We need to find legal avenues to prevent the problems we now have.”