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 [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
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