wfn.org | Re: United Methodist Daily News note 3101

[owner-umethnews@ecunet.org]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3193 notes).

Note 3189 by UMNS on Sept. 26, 1996 at 16:30 Eastern (6441 characters).

CONTACTProduced by United Methodist News Service, official news
agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville,
Tenn., New York, and Washington.

: Thomas S. McAnally                          475(10-30-71B){3189}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470            Sept. 26, 1996

Photo available

National, local immigration issues
backdrop for national teleconference

     NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Immigration and refugee issues
were grabbing front-page headlines here and across the nation
Sept. 24 as Christians in more than 100 locations gathered to talk
about being hospitable to strangers.
     Only a few miles away from the Nashville studio where the
two-hour teleconference originated, federal agents were, for the
first time in the city's history, sweeping the area to pick up
undocumented workers. Thousands of workers, mostly Hispanic, have
moved to Nashville in recent months because of the city's strong
economy and construction boom.
     Meanwhile in Washington, members of the House of
Representatives were working on a controversial immigration bill. 
House members approved one bill that would crack down on illegal
immigration and another that would allow states to deny a public
education to any illegal immigrant children who are not enrolled
in school by next July.
     While it is expected that the overall bill will be approved
in some form by the Senate and signed by President Clinton, Senate
Republicans concede the education ban stands little chance of
coming to a vote.
     Among other things, the bill would double the Border Patrol
to more than 10,000 agents in five years, build a triple fence
along the Mexican border, increase penalties for alien smuggling
and document fraud, and set further limits on public aid to legal
immigrants.
     With this backdrop, ethicists, theologians and other
teleconference participants had no difficulty addressing the
topic, "Building Hospitable Community: Confronting Bias,
Countering Xenophobia (fear of strangers)."  
     Ignatius Bau, a lawyer from San Francisco, said politicians
often make immigrants scapegoats for problems they didn't create,
particulary in the field of health care and education. He was
particularly critical of politicians who travel to the Mexican
border to hold press conferences in an effort to get votes.
     He scoffed at the provision in the immigration bill which
calls for three fences along the U.S.-Mexican border.  "Even
members of the Border Patrol have testified against this idea," he
said. "It's overkill."
     The close connection between racism and anti-immigrant bias
was noted by several speakers.
     "We as people of faith don't want to deal with our sin, and
racism is a sin," declared the Rev. Minerva Carcano, a United
Methodist who was recently-named director of Mexican-American
programs at United Methodist-related Perkins School of Theology in
Dallas.  "We don't like to be held accountable (but) ... we have
set up a system where some are considered superior and some are
inferior when our biblical understanding is that we are all
children of God."
     Some of the two-hour teleconference was spent dispelling
myths about immigrants. It began with a quiz to test perceptions
against facts. Later in the program, host Bonnie Boswell revealed
that only 700,000 of the 1.1 million immigrants who come into the
United States each year are undocumented.
     Contrary to the popular perceptions that most undocumented
individuals cross a border illegally, she said six out of 10 enter
the United States legally with student, tourist, or business visas
and become "illegal" when they stay in the country after their
visas expire.
     Again raising a question of racism, one panel member
questioned why so much attention is focused on the Mexican border
while few people are concerned about Canadians who overstay their
visas.
     A fear of difference is the primary component of both racism
and anti-immigrant bias, Bau asserted.  "A 1989 U.S. survey showed
that 37 percent of the people could not identify a friend or
acquaintance born in another country," he reported.
     Carcano urged members of the faith community to push their
political leaders to have a "sustained, on-going discussion about
immigration issues and not just during an election year."
     Elizabeth Ferris, director of the immigration and refugee
program for Church World Service, said proposals to deny education
to children of undocumented immigrants "are based on political
expediency, not on whether they are good or bad for America."
     While the faith community can do much, Ferris said churches
won't be able to take up the slack if the U.S. Government cuts
basic services such as medical care and access to nursing homes.
     In a pre-recorded videotape, United Methodist Bishop Melvin
Talbert, president of the National Council of Churches (NCC),
decried the inhospitality of today's citizens, themselves
descendents of immigrants, who want to push immigrants out and
"shut the door."
     A reminder from the Rev. Ernest Jones, staff member of the
Bridgeport (Conn.) Council of Churches, was expressed by several
panel members and callers. "We were once strangers.  While there
have to be limits, people must be dealt with humanely."  
     Jones and others told about a program of "study circles"
where a small number of individuals gather to discuss immigration
and refugee issues. The purpose is to draw people together who
would not ordinarily be together, he said, including immigrants
and refugees who can share their own stories.
     Martha McCoy, executive director of the Study Circles
Resource Center of the Topsfield Foundation, said it is easy to
make immigration a "us-them" issue.  "There are not a lot of
opportunities for 'us' and 'them' to talk," she said.  
     Kathleen Hurty, director of ecumenical networks for the NCC,
said the faith community can play a "convening" role for "candid
interaction" by bringing people together and looking for ways of
allowing people to engage in discussion without debate.  Involving
elected officials in these small-group discussions was also
suggested.
     The teleconference, produced by United Methodist
Communications (UMCom), was sponsored by the NCC and financed by a
grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.  Hurty was the executive
producer.  Shirley Whipple Struchen of UMCom was the producer.
                              #  #  #

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