Responding to what it terms “the increase of terror and fear in our communities due to anti-immigration legislation and increased deportations,” the National Council of Churches (NCC) has adopted a resolution advocating loosened immigration policies and criticizing a controversial Arizona law.
Meeting September 20-21 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the council’s governing board embraced the resolution asking “the millions of faithful Christians who worship in our churches, to actively engage national, state and local legislators to insist on comprehensive immigration reform at every level.”
The resolution contends that “widespread anti-immigrant efforts” underscore a pressing need for federal action. According to the NCC, the necessary action is to provide a path to citizenship for those who have broken the law in migrating to the United States. This kind of conditional amnesty is the central plank in what advocates term “comprehensive immigration reform.”
“Make it Congress’ goal to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2011,” urged Jen Smyers, Associate for Immigration and Refugee Policy at the NCC-affiliated Church World Service. Smyers encouraged churches to advocate liberalized immigration through house parties, theological reflections and bulletin inserts for congregations, and outreach to media.
The NCC resolution claims the biblical call to “welcome the stranger” as a basis for loosened immigration restrictions. It also notes a nationwide fast and prayer chain based on Isaiah 58:6: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”
The resolution follows a 2008 action by the council’s full General Assembly that declared the “unqualified support of both organizations [NCC and Church World Service] for immigration reform, and their firm commitment to support local congregations in national and local advocacy for immigrants and their families.”
The new resolution, “A Call to Action on Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” specifically criticizes Arizona’s SB 1070 and similar laws introduced in other states, alleging that the full law would have encouraged racial profiling. According to the resolution’s text, immigrants now live in a “state of fear” of exploitation, discrimination, apprehension, detention and deportation. A federal judge blocked portions of SB 1070 from taking effect, but the council still views the law with concern.
“SB 1070 has gone viral and is being considered in 22 states,” said Smyers. “In a year from now, if we don’t respond, there will be 15-20 states with such laws.”
Smyers’ ecumenical colleagues on the NCC’s Immigration Task Force were in agreement. “There is a sense of urgency,” said David Leslie of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, who briefed the council alongside Smyers and Arizona Ecumenical Council Executive Director Jan Olav Flaaten.
“The leadership is at the forefront here, not so much the people in the pews,” Flaaten admitted. He added that there was consideration of filing an amicus brief on behalf of those challenging the Arizona law, but not at this time.
“There has been no issue that has solidified the faith community leadership like this issue,” asserted Flaaten. The Arizona ecumenical leader was the most explicitly political of the three task force members to address the governing board. He noted that the group was waiting to see what happened in the upcoming November elections. “There is a fear [the Arizona state legislature] will become more conservative, more hard-line than it has been,” Flaaten assessed. “Perhaps we can get a Democratic governor in here.”
Smyers updated the governing board on the progress of federal immigration legislation, including the status of the DREAM Act, legislation that would provide a pathway to legal status for young adults whose families had entered the country illegally while they were minors. The Church World Service employee noted that the legislation had been attached to the Department of Defense authorization bill in the Senate and explained efforts to lobby Republican senators to support the measure. (The defense authorization later failed to receive the necessary votes in the Senate.)
Several denominational representatives addressed immigration early in the governing board’s meeting. A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) representative noted that the denomination adopted a policy forbidding church meetings in Arizona. A representative of the historically African American National Baptist Convention said the church felt solidarity over the immigration issue. An Episcopal Church representative noted that the church’s House of Bishops had considered cancelling its planned meeting in Arizona, but decided to continue with original plans, adding a pre-conference trip to the Mexican border and engaging in a series of activities with the Hispanic community.
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