Immigration Reform Goes To Pulpit

07 Feb 2013

The Immigration Reform Bill, agreed upon by the Barack Obama administration and the opposition Republicans, is set to face flak from a totally unexpected quarter, the Roman Catholic Church.  The Church opposition is to neither the illegal immigrants nor the Hispanics, as they are the main laity of the Roman Catholic Church, but the ambivalence of both the President and the Hispanic groups to gay couples also slipping through among the 11.5 million who are expected to get Permanent Residence as a result of the reform.

The far-reaching proposals agreed upon by President Obama and Hispanic caucus include granting visas to same-sex partners. The Church in principle is opposed to such marriages and is therefore opposed to the whole Immigration Bill.

As with Hispanics who voted overwhelmingly to the Obama re-election, the Church too holds great clout in regard to American Presidential elections. Former President Bill Clinton, too, was always indebted to the Church of the African Americans who consistently backed him in the elections. But Clinton never faced this kind of opposition. Now President Obama, who also swears by God and indeed rounded off his inaugural speech with “Help me God”, would need divine blessings to get his reform bill passed.