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CWS - Advocacy Days Conference Rallies with March for America


From Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:53:11 -0700

Advocacy Days Conference Rallies with March for America on Immigration
Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- March 21, 2010 -- As a lead-up to this
afternoonâ??s massive "March for America" immigration reform rally on
the National Mall, an international conference this weekend on global
migration issues also raised the volume on the immigration reform
issue.

Frustrated by an immigration system that fractures families and is
viewed by reform proponents as neither fair nor humane, the nearly 750
participants at this yearâ??s Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference in
Washington (March 19 - 21) are urging new U.S. immigration policies that
make family unity a priority and provide visa reform, fair workerâ??s
rights, earned legal status for the undocumented, and humane
enforcement.

â??Americaâ??s broken immigration system creates the  undocumented
immigration problem,â?? said Jen Smyers, Associate for Immigration and
Refugee Policy with humanitarian agency Church World Service. â??The
punishment doesnâ??t fit the crime." Lacking documents is in violation
of a civil statute, she said, and the punishment of "ripping people from
their families" is too harsh.

Conscious of the historic deliberations on health care in the U.S.
Congress over the weekend, Smyers remarked to the advocacy conference
attendees, â??While we are at the March for America rally, Congress is
voting on health care, with all of us out there saying,
â??Congratulations!  Next up - comprehensive immigration reform!â? ?

John McCullough, Executive Director and CEO of Church World Service,
told participants, â??We are called to be part of an expanding vision  of
what it means to be family.â??

Frank Sharry is Founder and Executive Director of Americaâ??s Voice, a
communications campaign working to win common-sense immigration reform,
and is former Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum
policy organization. Addressing the advocacy conference, Sharry said,
"How can we be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, so that
family members can come with visas and on planes rather than risking
their lives to cross the desert and using smugglers?

"The only way we can couple enforcement with humanity is to change the
law. The current brutal enforcement policies are trampling our values,"
he said.

â??I donâ??t support breaking the law, but I do support  reviewing laws
that are not in accord with the values of our country and that donâ??t
serve our nationâ??s needs,â?? Sister Mary McCauley told  conference
attendees. McCauley was pastoral administrator for St. Bridgetâ??s
Church in Postville, Iowa, where a U.S. immigration raid at
Agriprocessors kosher meat packing plant in May 2008 arrested 389
undocumented workers.

â??People of faith care about these issues, and they are being heard  in
Washington,â?? CWSâ??s Smyers said.

One conference participant, a U.S. citizen and wife of an undocumented
immigrant, told of her husbandâ??s deportation to Mexico and  subsequent
arrest when he tried to return to the U.S. Heâ??s now serving time in  a
federal penitentiary, she said, â??for the crime of wanting to be a
father to his children.â??

"It's not fair to strip a family of its dignity," she said. "We need
strong effective laws while providing families the option of staying
together. But it's not fair to keep a father from his children. It's not
fair to keep a husband from his wife."

Rev. Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ), told the gathering, â??There is no God  but
God, no family but the human family.  Human history shows that one God
does not necessarily mean one people.  But it should.  It should.  The
challenge is to see past false division and to see one human family, no
matter which side of the human-made border we were born on or whether or
not we have documents.â??

CWS building nationwide immigration legal services network
In advance of congressional debates and possible enactment of
immigration reform, in February Church World Service announced plans to
expand its nationwide network of immigration legal services.

CWSâ??s McCullough, whose humanitarian agency advocates for U.S.
immigration reform and resettles refugees in the U.S., said, â??Weâ ??re
hopeful that immigration reform will become a reality. We're therefore
anticipating that demand for immigration legal services will increase,
as many individuals and families who currently live in the shadows find
they need assistance to file immigration applications and navigate the
complex immigration system in order to legalize their status and reunite
with family members."

The weekend's advocacy conference, â??A Place to Call Home:  Immigrants,
Refugees, and Displaced Peoples,â?? focused equally on global issues:
Participants balanced preparations for a day of immigration reform
lobbying on Capitol Hill on Monday - while attending workshops
deliberating the displacement of millions worldwide who are forced to
migrate because of conflict, climate-induced water and food shortages,
natural and economic disasters.

Church World Service is a co-sponsor of Ecumenical Advocacy Days.

Media Contacts: Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676,
media@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net

Church World Service
475 Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10115
(212) 870-2061


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