wfn.org | Lutherans Seek Comprehensive Immigration Reform

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

December 14, 2005

Lutherans Seek Comprehensive Immigration Reform 05-238-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Almost everyone in the United States would
agree that the country's immigration system is broken; the debate begins
when they consider the many possible ways to fix it, according to Ralston
H. Deffenbaugh Jr., president, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
(LIRS).  LIRS supports The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of
2005, introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and
Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
     Based in Baltimore, LIRS is a cooperative ministry of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Latvian Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod.
     "There are some folks who think we just ought to have more
enforcement -- throw more people on the border in terms of border patrol,
have higher fences and keep people out," Deffenbaugh said.  "There are
other folks who say, 'Look, the economic pressures are so great that we
will have people crossing over no matter what we do,' and 'We need to
have an immigration system that lives up to the ideals of our country."
     Deffenbaugh said LIRS is observing that debate and the
brokenness of the immigration system.  "We see families being separated.
We see willing workers and willing employers not able to contract for
employment with each other," he said.
     "We see otherwise law-abiding people, many of whom are
members of our churches, who are afraid because they don't have proper
immigration documents.  They're afraid that they're going to get
apprehended and deported," Deffenbaugh said.
     "We also see, in this time of enhanced security fears in the
United States, precious immigration enforcement resources being diverted
for otherwise law-abiding people instead of being focused on those who
really aim to mean us harm," he said.
     Several factors make comprehensive immigration reform
urgent, Deffenbaugh said.  "One is the heightened security concerns after
September 11.  We need to be confident as a country that we do know who
is coming into the country," he said.
     Each year the deaths of hundreds of people trying to enter
the United States across its Southwest deserts create urgency,
Deffenbaugh said.  "It's a shameful commentary that we have that sort
of human suffering and death there," he said.
     "Another factor is the increased pressure that we feel from
families who want to be united with their loved ones and (pressure) that
we feel from employers who can't find enough workers here in the United
States, who end up having to turn to undocumented people for employment
and who don't like to be violating the law," Deffenbaugh said.
     Speaking Nov. 28 in Tucson, Ariz., President George W. Bush
outlined a three-part plan to reform the nation's immigration policy.  The
president's plan includes some measures recommended in the McCain-Kennedy
bill, but it directs migrant workers toward temporary status in the
United States instead of toward permanent legal resident status.
     The first part of the president's plan is "to promptly
return every illegal entrant we catch at the border," Bush said.
The second part is "to correct weak and unnecessary provisions in our
immigration laws," he said.  The third part is to create a "temporary
worker program" that matches willing workers with willing employers for
a limited period of time.
     "True immigration reform should include a path to permanent
legal resident status for hard-working, law-abiding migrant workers,"
Deffenbaugh said.
     "Despite the inadequacies of the president's plan, the House
leadership is taking an even more unworkable approach to addressing the
problems of our immigration system.  Their strategy is far from both the
White House plan and the McCain- Kennedy legislation," Deffenbaugh said.
     Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis. 5th) introduced a
bill Dec. 6 in the U.S. House.  Deffenbaugh calls it "enforcement only
legislation" that "does not include any type of guest worker program"
and that "proposes overly harsh border and internal enforcement measures
that will drive immigrants further into the shadows, compromise our
national security and tear families apart."
     "LIRS feels that enforcement alone is not a solution.
Reform must be comprehensive and include smarter enforcement, combined
with measures to address the economic and social reasons people migrate,"
Deffenbaugh said.
     Background information on the LIRS Web site notes:
"President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders have shown the
political will to change the current immigration system.  Voices from
our local congregations and immigrant service partners echo the need
for a new approach."
     LIRS espouses "four principles essential to successful
reform: uniting families, protecting human rights and worker rights,
ending the marginalization of undocumented workers, and providing a path
to permanence."
     Calling it "compromise legislation," LIRS said the McCain-
Kennedy bill "goes a long way to carrying out the principles above."
     "This legislation will help certain migrants earn critical
legal status and (find) a path to permanency in the United States.
It strengthens family unity policy.  It also provides a system that will
decrease the incentive for illegal migration, providing future willing
workers a legal, orderly way to connect with employers who cannot find
U.S. citizens to fill their jobs," LIRS said.
     The Rev. Stephen Bouman, bishop, ELCA Metropolitan New York
Synod, said, "The Kennedy-McCain bill offers bipartisan attention to
the issue and suggests a reasonable approach, which acknowledges the
need for security while moving the issue forward concerning a climate
of welcome and hospitality for the stranger."
     "For Christians of many differing traditions, the message of
the Bible is clear about welcoming the stranger.  We don't have to agree
on public policies in order to see the neighbor in front of us and offer
grace and hospitality," Bouman said.
     "We're urging support for that McCain-Kennedy bill, and
we're urging that people continue praying and continue reaching out a
hand of welcome to the strangers among us," Deffenbaugh said.
     "That theme of hospitality is woven into the Old Testament,
the New Testament, our Reformation history and our history as Lutherans
in the past century, but it's still something worthy to remember today
and to urge us to try to overcome our fears of those people who are
different from us," Deffenbaugh said.  -- -- --
     The home page for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service is at http://www.lirs.org/ on the Web.
     The ELCA's 1998 message on "Immigration" is at
http://www.ELCA.org/socialstatements/immigration/ on the Web.

For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or
news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news