During the recent annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference sponsored by the National Council of Churches, Alliance members joined other people of faith for a weekend filled with worship, plenary sessions and workshops around the theme, “A Place to Call home — Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Persons.”
Workshops were offered on the following “tracks”: Africa; Asia/Pacific; Eco-Justice; Global Economic Justice; Latin America; Middle East; Peace & Global Security; and United States/Domestic. A number of workshop leaders came from groups Alliance folk are affiliated with including Churches for Middle East Peace, Latin America Working Group, Bread for the World and the Jubilee USA Network.
Here are a few of the things that I learned during the weekend:
People in Mexico who applied for visas in December 1990 — 20 years ago— are only now being processed and all those applying after them are still waiting.
Because of current detention policies, 100,000 children have been separated from parents in the last 10 years.
65,000 children who have spent most of their lives in U.S. school systems graduate each year but are unable to pay in-state tuition or have access to loans for college or even to obtain a job.
Because immigrants pay taxes and contribute to our economy, a study by the Center for American Progress concluded that comprehensive immigration reform would add trillions in tax revenues and spending and investment. In contrast, a deportation-only policy would drain $2.5 trillion from the U.S. economy over 10 years.
Bad employers who exploit undocumented workers also do great harm to good employers as well as depressing wages for all workers not just immigrants.
We also learned about some of the root causes of immigration – including the effects of NAFTA and CAFTA on U.S. workers as well as on farmers and workers in Mexico and Central America. For example, a teacher in El Salvador cannot support a family on his/her salary, and can make more money picking strawberries in California. We also learned about policies of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization that are good for rich people and rich countries and terribly harmful to poor people and poor countries.
As part of the weekend, we also participated Sunday afternoon in the March for America on the Mall in Washington, D.C. We lifted our voices at the March 21 event with more than 200,000 other people for just and humane immigration reform! What a timely reminder of how important our conference and Monday-Lobby Day was for our friends from around the world.
The final workshop trained us for meetings in congressional offices and then we had the opportunity to meet people from our own states to plan visits. In my group, Presbyterians, Methodists, Unitarians, Congregationalists, Catholics and Baptists (well, one Baptist!) visited with the staff of our two senators and representative. We shared our new knowledge gained during the weekend as well as personal stories of the challenges faced by our friends who are immigrants and refugees.
We advocated for the following:
1. Humane, equitable and comprehensive immigration reform that would include:
a pathway for undocumented immigrants and their families to earn lawful permanent residency upon the satisfaction of reasonable criteria and eventually to pursue citizenship
opportunities for students without documentation who have lived here five years or longer to attend college (Dream Act)
a strong emphasis on family unification
border policies and internal enforcement policies with humanitarian values and due process protections.
2. Congress to address the root cause of migration and immigration by enacting the Jubilee Act, which would expand debt cancellation and provide a framework for responsible lending to poor countries.
3. Congress to provide adequate funds for life-saving assistance to refugees and other forcibly displaced persons in fiscal 2011, such as providing funding for internally displaced people in more than 62 countries including Sudan, Haiti and Sri Lanka.
Each Capitol Hill staff person told us the same thing: “We need broad support for immigration reform.” So please, take a moment and call, e-mail or write your senator and encourage them to support comprehensive immigration reform. Be sure to tell them that as a person of faith you support humane and just immigration reform. Feel free to use the Ecumenical Advocacy Days points listed above! Lift your voice for justice!
What shall I bring when I come before God and bow down before God on high?. . . . Listen here mortal: God has already made abundantly clear what “good” is, and what God needs from you: simply do justice, love kindness and humbly walk with your God. — Micah 6: 6, 8
Education and Immigration: Jan Resseger, United Church of Christ RessegerJ@ucc.org
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