In their column, the bishops said legislative efforts should promote dignity, not punishment. "And real reform is more than just another word for enforcement," they said.

The bishops warned that "if the Legislature gets into a contest over which political party can be tougher on 'illegals,' we'll undermine our own best interests and miss an opportunity to help frame the national immigration discussion with common sense and justice."

The church's role is not to draft legislation, they said. "But Catholics and other people of faith do have a common set of principles that should inform all our thinking. Immigration reform is not merely a policy debate. It's a profoundly moral issue. The measure of a just society is how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members."

In Colorado, the bishops continued, "the common good requires legislation that enables both employers and workers to earn an adequate living without deceit or fear."

"We need to resist proposals that emphasize enforcement at the expense of real reform," they said. "Punishing criminals is justice. That's a good thing. But turning poor people who seek a dignified existence for their families into criminals in order to punish them is not justice. It's both foolish and wrong.

"We fully support security policies that target real threats to our peace," Archbishop Chaput and Bishop Sheridan continued. "But that should not require that we push further into the shadows some of the very workers who are strengthening and building our country."

"Illegal immigration is a serious matter, but it should never be a felony," they said.

They noted that more than a century ago Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants faced the kind of hostility directed at Latino immigrants today.

"At a time when U.S. immigration policies and enforcement were far more lax than today, many of them were 'illegal,'" the bishops wrote. "Some of the same elected representatives now making our federal immigration laws may have had grandparents or great-grandparents whose status would get them deported in 2006."

Even with changing times and contemporary security concerns, "especially in an election year, the debate must take place in a spirit of good will," they said.

The bill legislators approved July 10 will require applicants for a wide range of benefits to prove their legal residency in Colorado.

Gov. Bill Owens, who said he would sign the bill, estimated that new identification requirements could cut off as many as 50,000 people from benefits, including retirement funds, health care, unemployment, food assistance, public housing or welfare. It also would prohibit grants, contracts, loans and professional or commercial licenses issued by state or local governments for people who do not provide approved identification.

The Colorado special session coincided with a series of field hearings being held by Congress in various locations around the country on federal immigration legislation. House- and Senate-passed immigration bills wait in limbo as members of the two bodies try to work behind the scenes to compromise on the vast differences between the two bills.

Among provisions in the House's enforcement-only bill is one that would make it a felony to be in the country illegally. It currently is only a violation of civil laws. The Senate bill includes many enforcement provisions as well as plans for a guest-worker program and a path by which people currently in the country illegally may legalize their status and eventually apply for citizenship.

Archbishop Chaput July 3 also announced plans for public town hall meetings to discuss immigration in light of Catholic social teaching. The sessions were to be held July 17 in Denver and July 24 in Centennial.