wfn.org | Generous Immigration Policy

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3244 notes).

Note 3241 by UMNS on Oct. 21, 1996 at 16:22 Eastern (4592 characters).

SEARCH: immigration, Mexico, U.S., refugee, ethics, church,
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CONTACT:  Ralph E. Baker                      527(10-32-71B){3241}
          Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470            Oct. 21, 1996

Iliff professor seeks
generous immigration policy

                          A UMNS Feature
                        by J. Richard Peck*

     There should be no wall between Mexico and the U.S. and the
ceiling on legal immigrants from Mexico should be raised
substantially above the current limit of 25,000 a year, according
to Dana Wilbanks, professor of Christian ethics at Iliff School of
Theology in Denver.
     Writing in Recreating America -- The Ethics of U.S.
Immigration and Refugee Policy in a Christian Perspective
(Abingdon, 1996) Wilbanks says, " ... walls are terrible things.
They express the sense that the other is an enemy who must be kept
out or kept away. Mexico is not an enemy of the U.S."
     While some politicians advocate militarizing the area to keep
out Mexican workers, Wilbanks notes the irony of supporting NAFTA
for the free flow of goods and capital across the border while
suggesting we need to use military troops to protect our border.
     "Proposals to militarize or blockade the border represent
exaggerations of the seriousness of illegal immigration, and
foster division, alienation and hostility between neighbors," said
Wilbanks.
     While the author agrees border control needs to be effective,
it is just as important that the enforcement be humane. He recalls
the 1992  shooting of Dario Valenzuela as he attempted to join his
family in the U.S. The border patrol agent who twice shot the
unarmed man in the back was acquitted, "demonstrating to immigrant
advocates the virtual immunity of the INS and border patrol from
legal accountability."
     Following a sabbatical year of study on immigration issues,
Wilbanks argues that a vast majority of illegal immigrants are
neither criminals nor enemies. While agreeing that immigrants
found guilty of crimes should be deported quickly, he suggests
that Mexico and the U.S. need to provide something like border
passing cards. He also advocates a pilot program to test a system
for verifying worker's eligibility for employment.
     Wilbanks says organized labor tends to exaggerate the threats
posed by immigration. "Still an ongoing assessment of the impact
of immigration on the well-being of the poor already inside the
U.S., working and unemployed, is essential," said the professor.
"When this impact is clearly a negative one, this becomes the
strongest moral basis of all for the restriction of immigration."
     The professor strongly opposes California Proposition 187
that would cut off social services and public benefits for
undocumented people. "Try to imagine yourself," writes Wilbanks,
"as a public school administrator turning children away because
their parents do not have documents, or even worse, turning them
into immigration authorities." Or he suggests, "try to imagine
yourself as a nurse denying assistance to a woman having
difficulty with her pregnancy, or reporting her to government
authorities."
     Wilbanks contends that " ... the right of children to
education and the right to health care should not be subject to
verification." He supports tests for eligibility for income
assistance, but notes that the possibilities for employment ...
are the primary pull factor [for immigrants], not access to the
welfare system.
     The author calls churches to become advocates for just an
humane immigration policies, and he suggests congregations should
provide hospitality to undocumented immigrants.
     "This ministry without distinction may indeed bring churches
into conflict with government agencies called on to enforce
distinctions," he says.  "But it is the kind of witness to which
the church is called in faithfulness to a God of all peoples, not
a national God."
     "Churches are called to be communities who model a different
way of treating neighbors than Proposition 187 dictates," he
concludes. "It should be an unfaithful response indeed if churches
take their cause from the national mood of stinginess rather than
from Jesus' challenge to love the stranger."
                              #  #  #

     * Peck is editor of Newscope, a weekly newsletter for United
Methodist leaders published by the United Methodist Publishing
House.

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