SARA CZARNOMSKI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Cardinal Roger Mahony seen here addressing the crowd on immigration at his speech on Sept. 14 with Fr. Carl Janicki, Director of Campus Ministry, by his side.
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012 VOL . LIV, ISSUE 03
Government is “broken”
Inside
• 85% of those who come illegally get jobs. • Latino immigrants are the largest group purchasing real estate in the U.S.
NIKOLAI KLUSHIN SPEAKS, PAGE 3
• In 2030, there will be 70 million people over age 65. • There will be 450 retirees for every 1,000 workers by 2030. • By 2020, the growth of the labor force will drop below 1 percent. Jobs will outnumber workers.
BY BRANDON DESIDERIO Editor-in-Chief BY ALEXA MILANO Staff Writer A MAJOR OR MINOR DECISION, PAGE 8
LANA DEL REY ARRIIVES, PAGE 3
Online www.theloquitur.com
Involvement Fair Recap
The U.S. governmental system is “totally broken and Congress has done practically nothing to deal with it,” according to a Catholic cardinal who’s made immigration his life’s work. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, Calif., encouraged students and faculty to see immigrants not as “others” - but as themselves. “[When] we come out of the economic downturn, you’re gonna hear far less about immigrants as a threat,” Mahony said. “We send two distinct messages at our borders: ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Help Wanted.’ Because we want it both ways: ‘yes, please come and do all these low-skill, low-income jobs, but please don’t come.’ We’re used to having it both ways.” His presentation on Friday, Sept. 14 provided both biblical
and historical contexts for people “on the move,” from Moses guiding captive Jews out of Egypt in the Old Testament, to, according to Mahony, the first migrants in recorded history: Adam and Eve. “Adam and Eve got tossed out of the garden, you remember, because of their sin, their misconduct,” Mahony said. “And they became the first ones to be on the move.” President Reagan was the last president to introduce a piece of immigration legislation: in 1986, he signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act into law. Now, 26 years later, Obama’s immigration policy will permit undocumented immigrants under age 30 to stay and work in the U.S. provided they have a high school diploma or GED, or are otherwise enlisted in the military. Obama’s provision for these undocumented immigrants, however, will only buy them five years. “Every time in our history [that] we have a downturn in the economy, or a recession, or a
• Only 5,000 green cards available per year in U.S. for workers. • 300,000 to 500,000 people have come to the U.S. illegally in the past five years. • 11 million undocumented people in the U.S. today. • 212 million people are on the move throughout the world. • Drug smugglers and human traffickers are the two groups most capable of crossing borders.
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depression, immigrants become the brunt of the blame,” Mahony said. “We always do this.” Mahony cited Leviticus 19:33-34 for how immigrants should be treated: “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.” Even “native-born” Philadelphians come from families that once were aliens. “Philadelphia was the primary port of entry for all of the immigrants in the early decades of our history,” Mahony said. He described the 1780s as a time when the first settlers in the colonies were so desperate for workers that they sent agents back to Europe to attract the manpower necessary for building railroads and working the land; eventually, he said, the improvement of ship conditions led to the influx of immigrants that led to our country’s prosperity. Mahony explained that SEE MAHONY, PAGE 2