Here is a recap of the immigration debate our parish had last Thursday:

Not really debate but "fishbowl" format – people on the outside raised their hand when they agreed with something.  Not much time to speak but got a few points across including the importance and uniqueness of gun culture to America, plus unfairness of the immigration cheats cutting in line (related my own experience dealing with my Ukrainian wife’s legal immigration).  Referred audience to this blog for details on my MM activity.  Did not have time to get into the blatant propaganda qualities of the distributed flyer (joint statement of US and Mexican Bishops) – for example, the picture shows American flags waving, and the text engages in race-baiting.  Notable speakers included an official from CBE that worked at LAX, who spoke in favor of more border control, and a lady who legally immigrated from Mexico City, who said that (generally) Mexicans who come here are not really impoverished in relative terms, but just come here for the free stuff and are laughing at us, confirming there is still a great deal of resentment against Americans.  Seemed that most of those who actually spoke were against uncontrolled immigration, but a "consensus" was declared that a fence made no sense.  Apparently, there were a lot of open border types there who chose not to speak but did raise their hand when someone said the fence would not solve anything.  The extreme difficulty of getting a green card to live in Vatican City was noted with some humor.  The difficulty of getting one for Mexico was also noted, sans humor.