Chicagoland

Prayers for reform continue

By Michelle Martin | Staff writer
Sunday, August 15, 2010

Participants in a July 28 Mass to pray for immigration reform welcomed word that a federal judge had blocked key provisions of an Arizona law aimed at undocumented immigrants earlier that day, but said much more needs to happen.

“I want to see a compassionate, comprehensive immigration reform,” said Patricia Broderick, a parishioner at St. Pius V in Pilsen. “I see the people who are left behind when their husbands or fathers are deported, and their little children were born here. I see the families where an 18-year-old high school kid was supporting the family and they get deported.”

Broderick was among many St. Pius parishioners at the prayer service and Mass, which was at St. Maurice Church, 3615 S. Hoyne Ave., one of three worship sites for Blessed Sacrament Parish.

The service began with parishioners walking in procession and stopping to pray at altars decorated by members of different immigrant groups. Each altar had a posterboard sign with one word reflecting the experience of immigrants, especially those without documents: racism, discrimination, unemployment, slavery.

While the prayers were solemn, the music played between the stations by a mariachi band from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish was lively.

When the procession reached the front of the church, the posterboard signs with the words were burned. Then the walkers were asked to remove their shoes and enter the church by walking over sand spread on the steps, showing solidarity with undocumented immigrants in Arizona, many of whom entered the United States by crossing the desert, said Father Michael Boehm, associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish.

The Mass came hours after U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton blocked provisions of Arizona S.B. 1070, a law that aimed to allow state officials to assume responsibility for enforcing immigration law, because, supporters say, the federal government’s efforts have been ineffective.

But Bolton issued an injunction stopping the state from enacting provisions in the law that would have required police officers to verify the immigration status of anyone they stopped; made it a crime for any immigrant to not carry proof of his or her immigration status at all times; allowed police to make warrantless arrests of people they suspect of being in the United States illegally; or made it a crime for someone to look for work without the proper documentation or to hire someone lacking a work permit.

The injunction stops Arizona from enforcing those aspects of the law until it can be reviewed by the federal courts. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed one of seven challenges to the law, saying it is unconstitutional and will encourage racial profiling.

The Arizona Catholic Conference, which is made up of the Catholic bishops of Arizona, issued a statement commending Bolton’s ruling. The Arizona bishops join the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in calling for a federal comprehensive immigration reform law.

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