This past week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) called, in the annual observance of National Migration Week, to "create a culture of encounter" with migrant workers.

With respect to migrants, too often today we don't see people from different cultures as persons, instead looking at them as "outsiders" and "others". We do not take the time to engage migrants in a meaningful way, but remain detached from their presence and suspicious of their intentions. The U.S. bishops have challenged the faithful in the United States to take the opportunity to engage migrants as children of God who are worthy of our attention and support.

As part of our duty as Catholics to speak up for the defenseless among us, immigrants who come to the United States are particularly vulnerable and need someone to speak on behalf of their human rights and dignity. Our moral tradition calls on all people of faith and goodwill to stand up in defense of life and human dignity; it is a fundamental calling for us as Catholics. Scripture speaks repeatedly of the migration experience: from Abraham who was sent out from his homeland in the Old Testament, to the Holy Family who fled Herod and lived their lives for a time as refugees in a foreign land.
Jesus tells us that when we throw a banquet, we should not invite only our relatives or wealthy neighbors, “but the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind” (Luke 14). How do we approach this when we think about and discuss with others policies that in respect to migration? Certainly, this does not mean is that we must invite all the world’s poor into the country, disregarding the well-being of those who are already here. Instead, we are called to reflect on how we - in a society that often has more than it needs - provide for those who live without basic necessities.
Where we are able to provide support and care for the poor and the downtrodden out of our excess, we are obligated to help. It is for this reason that we must balance the demands of the common good of our country, while responding to the needs of those "on the peripheries" (to use a favorite expression of Pope Francis) who can benefit from our wealth. This can mean that we should implement a thoughtful immigration policy that enables people to come and work and try to earn a better living than they might have available to them in their homeland. This might also
mean that we turn our attention to the developing world and try to help these countries, through such mechanisms as foreign aid and humane trade agreements, to build up their economy so that their citizenry can find work there and not have to leave their families and communities to find it elsewhere.

In the current political environment, it can become too easy to accept a distorted and false understanding of migrants and why they come. From the very beginning of formal Catholic social teaching we have been invited and challenged to live up to our Christian responsibility to “welcome the stranger among us.”