President Obama said earlier this spring that the political climate wasn’t right in this election year to work on immigration reform. But Arizona may have forced his hand when it passed a controversial law that authorizes police to apprehend people they suspect lack proper documents (see the story Church workers and the law for the law's implications for churches). Arizona has put immigration back on the front page.
Religious leaders active in Arizona interfaith affairs went to Washington in mid-May to tell the state’s senators that the federal government, not the state, should take the lead on immigration reform.
The group of Jewish, Methodist, evangelical, Catholic and Episcopal leaders said they oppose Arizona’s new law that allows police to question residents about their legal immigration status.
In the shadow of Arizona’s strict immigration law, a broad range of evangelical leaders are speaking in support of comprehensive immigration reform, with more specifics than some were able to embrace before.
At the same time, the no. 3 Democrat in the Senate, New York’s Charles Schumer, is hoping that evangelicals will nudge their allies in the GOP to push an on-again, off-again immigration bill through Congress.
When Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona in late April signed a bill authorizing local police to apprehend people suspected of having entered the country illegally, she brought to national attention the tensions and frustrations that many Arizonans feel when it comes to immigration. These tensions are evident in congregations, which contain a wide range of opinions on immigration policy. The tensions are also acutely felt in congregations that work closely with immigrants and in those that are made up of immigrants.
Although nearly everyone agrees that U.S. immigration policy is inadequate, different critics focus on different elements of the problem. The most comprehensive proposal comes from Representative Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.), a native Chicagoan of Puerto Rican ancestry who has criticized President Obama’s reluctance to address the issue. Gutierrez’s bill is heartily endorsed by most immigrants’ rights groups, but it is not likely to pass in its current form. Jen Smyers of Church World Service calls it “a marker bill,” since it stakes out a clear position. It has no Republican supporters.