L.A. cardinal focuses on immigration

LOS ANGELES – Wading back into the growing debate over illegal immigration, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony on Tuesday denounced what he called “hysterical” anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping California and the nation.

In an interview on the eve of Ash Wednesday, Mahony said he planned to use the first day of the Lenten season to call on all 288 parishes in the nation’s largest archdiocese to fast, pray and press for humane immigration reform. U.S. Roman Catholic bishops support proposals for a guest-worker program, legalization of undocumented immigrants and more visas for families of migrants.

Mahony also criticized efforts by the Minutemen Project and other immigration control groups to police the border, saying it was a misguided reaction to concerns about national security.

“The war on terror isn’t going to be won through immigration restrictions,” he said, adding that al-Qaida operatives would not trek through miles of deadly desert to infiltrate the nation.

As spiritual leader of the 5 million-member archdiocese, Mahony’s comments add a powerful voice to what has become an acrimonious debate over illegal immigration, coming as the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee takes up a series of proposed immigration controls this week.

In his most forceful comments to date, Mahony said he would instruct his priests to defy legislation – if approved by Congress – that would require churches and other social organizations to ask immigrants for legal documentation before providing assistance and penalize them if they refuse to do so.