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By Linda Bloom*
2:00 P.M. EST May 3, 2010 | ST. LOUIS (UMNS)
United Methodist Women join with other supporters of immigrant rights
for a rally at Kiener Plaza in St. Louis. UMNS photos by Mike DuBose.
Guided by a century-old history of assisting immigrants, members of
United Methodist Women joined others across the nation May 1 in making a
public witness on the immigration debate.
Their rally and march – which drew about 2,000 people, including
residents of St. Louis – occurred during the April 29-May 2 United
Methodist Women’s Assembly.
For many of the participants, including Claudia Knight, a member of
Pahraump Valley United Methodist Church in Nevada, the march was a way
“to show we care about immigrant rights.”
Those rights, they believe, include freedom from racial profiling, an
end to detentions and deportations, and a just reform of immigration
laws.
As the women spilled out of the St. Louis convention center and onto the
street, a sprinkling of identical printed signs made the march’s
purpose clear to any passersby: “Because we believe … we act for
immigrant rights.”
C.J. Shell, a member of First United Methodist Church in Bartlesville,
Okla., carried one of the purple signs as the marchers began walking
down Sixth Street toward Kiener Plaza.
Close to 200 women had come from the Oklahoma Conference to the
assembly, and Shell estimated that at least half were participating in
the march. She was moved to do so by “the feeling that I had to do
something. I’m frustrated by what’s going on in Arizona.”
Imhyoung Staudinger – a social worker and member of Monmouth (N.J.)
Grace United Methodist Church who saw the march as a way to help people –
said she has a positive view of immigrants. “They work just as hard as
any American, maybe harder,” she said.
An “ill wind” is crossing the United States, Francisco Liman says.
Rally at the plaza
With the famous St. Louis arch in the background, marchers spread across
steps and sat on the grass at Kiener Plaza, singing songs of justice.
Francisco Liman of St. Louis, who had received an e-mail alerting him of
the rally, carried a homemade sign that read “Racial Profiling, Is This
Why We Fought.”
A Vietnam veteran who was born in Mexico, Liman said he wanted to
participate as a way of enlightening others about the issue. “It’s an
ill wind that’s crossing the United States,” he declared. “I think it’s
time to stand up and do something about it now.”
Speakers at the rally included local organizers, immigrants and members of the interfaith community.
Monsignor Jack Schuler, Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, got straight
to the point in his opening prayer to God. “We’re all created in your
image and the image is in danger of being trashed,” he said. “We must
get this right, for the sake of human rights.”
Of particular concern is the new Arizona law requiring police officers
to question people they suspect might be in the country illegally. A
slightly altered version of the law was signed April 30, which says such
questioning can occur only when the officer is enforcing another law or
ordinance.
The St. Louis arch looms in the background as women march for immigrants' rights.
Arizona law
United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño, who is based in Arizona, said
the new law was not good for Arizona or the country as a whole.
“Arizona is ground zero for our broken federal immigration policies and
laws,” she explained. “We need comprehensive immigration reform in this
country and this is what the polls in Arizona really were saying.”
UMW President Inelda González, the organization’s first Hispanic
president, lives in a part of Texas that borders Mexico. She said she
knows how militarization of the border “divides families and peoples
that have had roots at the border for many, many years.”
With detentions and deportations, the broken immigration system is breaking up families as well, she said.
An end result of the rally was the collection of signed postcards to
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano asking the Obama
administration to end abuses in detention centers, restore due process,
stop arbitrary family separation, ban the practice of using local police
to enforce immigration law and work with Congress on just immigration
reform.
González and Harriett Olson, top staff executive of the Women’s
Division at the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, plan to
deliver the postcards personally to Napolitano’s office.
A petition was circulated for local participants calling for ordinances to outlaw racial profiling.
“Secretary Napolitano, we have high expectations of you,” Carcaño said. “We will be praying for you.”
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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