Bishop Minerva Carcaño on immigration front line

When United Methodist Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño talks about tussling with political bigwigs on the topic of immigration reform, she is poised yet forceful.

As the first female Hispanic bishop elected in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination, Carcaño has had a lot of practice keeping her cool, especially when it comes to discussing divisive politics.

“Immigrants can stay as long as they don’t ask for more than we want to give them, and as long they keep serving our needs at whatever pittance of pay we want to extend to them,” Carcaño said in an interview in her office in Pasadena, California. “When people begin to say that’s not fair, that’s not just, then that ruffles feathers.”