There’s an an approach to immigration over at Ascent to Mount Carmel that I really don’t get:

There’s a flu epidemic in Mexico right now.  Given the United States’ weak border security, it’s only a matter of time before it reaches us.

I looked up some example statistics and found that in 2004 there were about 240 million legal crossings from Mexico to the USA. Illegal crossings are only a fraction of that, so weak border security can surely only have a small effect on increasing the transmission rate of any such disease.

The post goes on:

It is not a moral burden on our shoulders if an illegal immigrant comes to our door begging for food and we turn them in to the authorities

The Catholic Catechism is considerably more challenging:

The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.