A Christian Case for Immigration Reform
Thousands of miles separate our churches, but as faith leaders, we are bound by a shared obligation to advocate on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves. We lead congregations in eleven states. We serve their needs and represent their values when we offer our support and urge our elected representatives to support comprehensive immigration reform.
Generations ago, ships destined for New York Harbor carried hopeful refugees escaping famine, poverty, oppression, armed conflict, and often religious persecution in their native lands. While means of transportation have changed, the reasons why immigrants come to our country have not. They want to live, work, and raise their families in our blessed nation because here they can find the security and opportunities for a better life they are denied elsewhere.
Many of them work in our neighborhoods. Their children sit next to ours in classrooms. They pray alongside us in our church pews. Keeping decent, aspiring, hardworking people in an illegal status indefinitely exposes them to the unscrupulous, who prey on their vulnerabilities. It prevents them from improving their situations and undermines their valuable contributions to our fragile economy.
Immigration reform is not only a humanitarian cause. It is critical to improving America's competitive advantage in the global economy. Entrepreneurs, skilled laborers, and students from abroad contribute significantly to the innovation, productivity, and growth of our economy. We do well to remember that it was the industry and ambitions of our own immigrant ancestors that built the world's most productive economy, and that helped to make America a superpower and a beacon of hope to oppressed people everywhere.
For each of our churches, the ramifications of immigration reform are personal. As pastors, we have all witnessed the distress of people who live in constant fear, who hide their skills and abandon their aspirations, who are forcibly separated from their loving families by an outdated immigration system that serves neither our interests nor our values. We have encountered children who are orphaned and relegated to the care of the state or are deported from the only country they have ever known by an immigration system that is indifferent to the most basic human values.
The dissolution of families and friendships has bred fear in tight-knit immigrant communities throughout our nation, discouraging over 11 million people from coming out of the shadows and assimilating in our culture. Immigrants want to learn English. They want to profess our values and live under the protection of our laws. Those values and the opportunities they create are what drew them to America. They want to assimilate and live up to their full potential in our society. They want to make their lives and our nation better, as millions of immigrants have before them.
In order for this to happen, border security cannot be the only policy objective of immigration reform. It is important, of course, for nations to control their borders. But it is just as important for nations to have immigration laws that serve the needs of their economies and reflect the values of their communities.
As the House of Representatives begins consideration of various proposals to reform our immigration laws, we sincerely hope they will come to support the approach adopted in the Senate. The legislation passed by the Senate respects the dignity of the people most affected by our immigration laws. We hope members of the House show the same consideration.
Scripture guides us on this course. In Exodus 21:21, God instructs, "You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." Psalm 94:6-7 reveals God's displeasure with Israel's treatment of vulnerable people and cites mistreatment of the sojourner as an example.
The Bible encourages government leaders to seek justice for all. It enjoins us all to treat the sojourner with respect and compassion. We believe the first consideration in any debate about our immigration laws should be to determine whether they treat the sojourners among us fairly. As of today, they clearly do not.
If left unchanged, our immigration laws will perpetuate discrimination in American communities, and displace families who seek only opportunities and security many of us take for granted. Our country desperately needs a modern immigration system that respects and values the needs of all God's children.
We pray the federal government comes to understand that the strength of our nation resides in its people. Passage of comprehensive immigration reform in Congress will not only bolster our economy, but more importantly it will honor the founding principles of American society, reflect our nation's storied history, and strengthen the tenants of our Christian faith.
Msgr. Rob Wenzinger, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Fresno, Calif.
Pastor Derrick Lynch, Blue Valley Baptist Church, Overland Park, Kan.
Pastor Chris Beard, Peoples Church, Cincinnati, Ohio
Rev. Walter Contreras, National Latino Evangelical Coalition, Los Angeles, Calif.
Father Michael O'Mara, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Indianapolis, Ind.
Pastor Keith Stewart, Spring Creek Church, Garland, Texas
Pastor Joe Carbajal, Mighty Wind Worship Center, Waco, Texas
Pastor Joel Hunter, Northwood, A Church Distributed, Longwood, Fla.
Rev. Ernie Davis, St. Therese Little Flow & St. James Parishes, Kansas City, Mo.
Pastor Dave Ferguson, Community Christian Church, Chicagoland, Ill.
Father Peter Rugerre, Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Tampa, Fla.
Pastor Dave Workman, Vineyard Community Church, Cincinnati, Ohio
Pastor Gabriel Salguero, The Lamb's Church, New York, N.Y.
Pastor J. Mark DeYmaz, Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, Little Rock, Ark.
Most Rev. Edgar M. da Cunha, SDV, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Newark, N.J.
