Faith leaders call for humane immigration reform
United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño speaks at a Feb. 11 interfaith
press conference on immigration in Washington. UMNS photos by Kathy L.
Gilbert. |
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Feb. 12, 2009 | WASHINGTON (UMNS)
Rev. Jim Wallis calls for humane immigration reform.
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People of faith must stand up for immigrants or “the moral fiber of
this country will be torn beyond repair,” said United Methodist Bishop
Minerva Carcaño at the launching of a national interfaith campaign for
humane immigration reform.
“As people of faith, we cannot and will not stand by in silence
while young people die, families are separated, individual freedoms are
ignored, and the immigrant community in the U.S. is treated unjustly
and inhumanely,” she declared. “No more!”
Carcaño, bishop of the denomination’s Desert Southwest Annual
(regional) Conference, joined two members of Congress and several
religious leaders from diverse faiths in announcing the launch of
“Prayer, Renewal and Action on Immigration” at a Feb. 11 press
conference in the Capitol.
The campaign is designed to engage people of faith on the
immigration reform debate. More than 100 faith communities will hold
prayer vigils across the country during the Feb. 13-22 Congressional
recess.
“It is really going to be a good President’s Day recess,” said U.S.
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who has been an outspoken advocate of
immigration reform. He said he was happy and excited to have the faith
community actively involved in the movement for reform.
Gutierrez will be part of a congressional Hispanic caucus holding
town hall meetings on comprehensive immigration reform in faith
communities during the last weekend of February. “We are going to be in
sanctuaries asking people to call President Barack Obama and the new
Congress and tell them, ‘I am in the church praying,’” he added.
Rights violated
The human and civil rights of immigrants are being violated, Carcaño
pointed out, citing the treatment of immigrant men by Sheriff Joseph
Arpaio in her home state of Arizona.
Jim Winkler listens to speakers during
an interfaith press conference on immigration reform.
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“ Just last week, 200 immigrant men in shackles and prison stripes
were marched through the streets of Phoenix, Ariz. under armed guard to
a tent prison encircled by an electric fence,” she said. “Apparently
these immigrants were being sent to await deportation in this
newly-created detention camp that brought them much human degradation
and humiliation but brought much media attention to Sheriff Arpaio.”
She said Arpaio called himself an official participant in a federal
policing program, 287(g), which allows a state and local law
enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“What is clear is that his style of policing has created a climate
of fear in our communities, unleashed a vicious wave of ethnic bashing,
and shown a complete disregard for basic human rights,” she said.
“Arizona does not stand alone in this shameful scene, for what is
happening in Arizona is happening all across this country.”
Power of faith community
U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), who is Japanese American, spoke of
his personal experience about having the support of the faith
community. It was faith organizations, he said, who spoke out against
the incarceration of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has been an active advocate for immigration reform.
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“ The power of your organization can be immense and can be a
determining factor,” he said. “Immigrants will be the salvation of our
country because when we draw from them we draw the strength, the
history and language we sorely need as a nation to work globally with
the rest of the world.”
The Rev. Jim Wallis, president and founder of Sojourners, said immigration “is one of our issues.”
“When government officials tell us who we can and cannot help they
are telling us about our ministry. They can’t do that. When they tell
us not to do our ministry, we will tell them we plan to engage in civil
disobedience.”
Other speakers at the press conference included Rabbi David
Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism;
Sister Eileen Campbell, councilor on the Institute of the Sisters of
Mercy of the Americas; and the Rev. John Crestwell, minister of Davies
Unitarian Universalist Church in Washington.
U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) spoke of his personal experience about having the support of the faith community.
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The Interfaith Immigration Coalition, sponsors of the press
conference, is a partnership of faith-based organizations committed to
enacting humane immigration reform. More than 500 congregations have
signed their platform that upholds family unity as a priority, along
with a process for undocumented immigrants to earn legal status,
protect workers, restore due process protections and facilitate
immigrant integration.
In his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for president, Barack
Obama said America is a country that understands a mother should not be
separated from her children, Gutierrez noted. Yet many news reports
show that the Bush administration did just that. “Government cannot
promise to bring people out of the shadows of darkness … and then use
that power to go out and deport people,” he said.
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Video
Bishop Minerva Carcano: “Celebration will be short-lived if we allow racist actions.”
Bishop Minerva Carcano: “People of faith cannot stand by in silence.”
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez: “We are all on the same page.”
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Resources
Statement by Bishop Minerva G. Carcano
Desert Southwest Annual Conference
Interfaith Immigration Coalition
Board of Church and Society |