Rules target foreign religious workers

By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

New immigration rules will make it harder for nuns, priests, rabbis and other temporary religious workers from abroad to get into the United States and stay here, a Pittsburgh attorney said.

The regulations require workers to be "sponsored" by a religious organization and provide for increased inspections, evaluations, verifications and compliance reviews of religious groups looking to hire temporary workers.

Formerly, foreign religious workers could request a visa without prior, stateside review of their job offer or affiliated organization.

"They want to count pews," said Joel Pfeffer, an attorney who specializes in immigration with the law firm of Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP, Downtown.

Reports of fraud and abuse in the program prompted the rule changes. But Pfeffer and others said those claims were overstated.

"It's not a major avenue for unauthorized entry into the U.S.," said Douglas Massey, professor of sociology at Princeton University.

Last year, under the old rules, the federal government received 16,487 requests for temporary religious visas. It approved 10,372.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said it agrees with the objective to reduce fraud but argues some of the changes would marginalize the program.

The changes could limit the types of religious workers entering the United States, create excessive burdens on dioceses and add additional steps to the application process, the bishops' conference said.

The new rules don't clearly define what qualifies as compensation, which could disqualify prospective workers who won't be directly compensated but would receive basic housing and material needs from a religious order, the bishops' conference said.

Diocesan priests, for example, can receive room and board and a small salary, said the Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

Religious-order priests take a vow of poverty. They don't receive a salary but are supported by the community.

"It will be a nightmare calculating how much food he ate or what room and board is worth," Reese said. "We don't want to do paperwork either."

Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or 412-380-5646.

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