Church Officials Discuss Grassroots Immigration Reform Movement

Eric LeMasters
September 25, 2009

At a panel discussion sponsored by the Center for American Progress (CAP), Congressman James Clyburn, a well-known proponent of open borders, and other prominent religious officials from the United Methodist, Jewish and Catholic traditions weighed in on the pro-immigration movement in faith communities throughout the U.S.  Anchoring the debate was a report written by Sam Fulwood, Senior Fellow at CAP, entitled “Loving Thy Neighbor:  Immigration Reform and Communities of Faith.”

Sally Steenland, Senior Policy Advisor for Faith and Progressive Policy, introduced the discussion saying it would draw attention to the people at the grassroots who are “working for reform of unjust, unworkable [immigration] laws,” drawing inspiration from “sacred texts … that teach us that we are all one human family.”  Pro-liberalized immigration reformists want to provide an easier path to citizenship for those who have entered the U.S. illegally.

After the keynote speech from Congressman Clyburn, Angela Kelley, the Vice President for Immigration Policy and Advocacy, hosted an “Oprah-style” discussion with Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Rabbi Jack Moline, United Methodist minister Dean Reed and Sam Fulwood, the author of the report.  Fulwood exulted that “almost church to church, parish by parish, and temple by temple,” people were getting energized on the subject of immigration as they saw the consequences of decades of stalled immigration reform in raids, broken families, and deportations.

“People who heretofore hadn’t had any experience, or any awareness, that’s when the transformation came in them,” he said.  “They [the congregations] said, ‘this isn’t right, this isn’t American, this isn’t Christian … this isn’t part of my religious upbringing.’  And so they were spurred to act.”

According to Fulwood, the report offers to counter the “loud and shrill anti-immigrant voices” – understood to be conservatives – and portray a more “human face” on behalf of those working in the U.S. illegally.  It comprises a series of narratives often describing raids by authorities to apprehend undocumented immigrants, and different faith-communities’ responses to these raids. 

Rev. Reed of the First United Methodist Church in Stephenville, Texas admitted his empathy was connected to his own family’s Scots-Irish immigrant roots.  “We were accepted,” Reed said of his ancestors.  “We’re having the same experience, just at different times.”  He also noted that his stance on immigration reform has made him feel a bit like a “voice in the wilderness” in traditionally conservative rural Texas.

Reed described his role in connecting pockets of like-minded communities throughout the nation in order to shape policy reform.  “What do we do, pull the ladder up behind us?” asked Reed, alluding to America’s immigrant beginnings.  “[If we say] to only come if you’re really well trained and educated and special, then we have departed …. We’ve drifted from where we were.  We need to get back to our roots.”

Referring to the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, which stipulated that anyone who assists an undocumented person would be committing a felony, Cardinal Roger Mahoney of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles commented, “I think that bill was a God-send.  Because it made so absurd how to deal with this issue, that it created a tremendous outpouring of upset … [and has] energized the immigrant and pro-immigrant community and brought about coalitions we never had before.  So I saw this as a divining moment.”

“What do we do with the twelve million people?  They’re here,” explained Mahoney.  “We have to move beyond criminalization and demonization, and must work to incorporate these people fully into our nation.”

One respondent asked what the panel thought of breaking the law in order to promote policy reform, particularly for churches.  Most of the panel responded that in order to be agents of change we must fix the law rather than break it.  But Rabbi Jack Moline suggested that “sometimes in order for a law to be examined as unjust, it needs to be broken through an act of civil disobedience.  I think what the people who are willing to do that [have] to accept … are the consequences of breaking the law, when following their convictions.”

There was little discussion about the consequences of such liberalized immigration reform, aside from another respondent’s comment about the implications for drug and ammunitions smugglers crossing the border.  Mahoney responded, pointing out that “if we had a workable immigration system, then anybody sneaking across the border is a bad guy.  So we can focus all our efforts on those people with drugs, ammunition, guns … and human trafficking.  We could then focus, really, on secure borders.”