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"In All Things Love" Immigration, Policy-Making And The Development Of Preferential Options For The Poor, Michele R. Pistone, John J. Hoeffner

Michele R. Pistone

The invitation to write for this symposium stated that the preferential option for the poor “asks us to define what law and public policy would look like if consideration for the poor was at the heart of our conception of the common good.” Inquiries of this kind are useful and necessary—to a point. They also can become counter-productive. The issue of immigration, which we discuss here to illustrate our larger point about the general appropriateness of claiming that a specific policy prescription is demanded by the preferential option for the poor, presents the complications of the matter in particularly stark …