Immigration: In Christ There Is No East or West, In Him No North or South

by Elenora Giddings Ivory

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

— "Strength to Love" (1963), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

April 2006—More than a million people, mostly immigrants, have taken to the streets recently to rally for a compassionate, respectful and comprehensive immigration law. They carried signs that boasted: "We are America;" signs that asked "Do not criminalize us" and begged; "Do not deport my parents." There were more than 140 rallies across the U.S. for a National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. Protesters against the pending harsh immigration laws chanted, "Today, we march; tomorrow, we vote." The anger of future voters has struck fear in the hearts of politicians, on both sides of the aisle.

Not all the marchers are undocumented. Some are registered voters or will be old enough to vote in the next Presidential election. Although the Senate was poised to vote in the spring, the force of these protests may delay any vote until after the fall midterm election. In the meantime, people of faith can take time to reflect upon this issue from a theological perspective. As quoted in the opening, 'The solution of one problem,' i.e., the estimated 12 million undocumented persons in the U.S., 'brings us face to face with another:' Do we march all 12 million to the border and push them out, or do we develop a path to citizenship?

Although the majority of demonstrators are from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, there has been a visible presence from other parts of the world -Ethiopia, Vietnam, Ghana, China, etc. The Washington Mall held 500,000 people at the April 10th, rally, many of whom wore white tee shirts as a symbol of peace. The Washington Times quoted Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the archbishop of Washington: "We are in a historic moment in our nation's history. Let us not now turn inward after all these centuries. We are all God's children, all brothers and sisters in his one human family."

Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) also spoke: "We are a nation of immigrants. This debate goes to the heart of who we are as Americans." The McCain/Kennedy bill stands as the most compassionate. Advocates can urge their Senators to vote for it, as amended to what they finally debate. The Bible demands that, "The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 19:33-34).

Many of the undocumented wish to become naturalized citizens, and want a path to legal citizenship. They carry the U.S. flag during these demonstrations. They may also carry other flags and banners to identify their country of origin. If it were not for the gravity of the harsh legislation before Congress and the color of their skin and their flags, these marchers could be mistaken for the annual Chinese New Year's Day parade or St. Patrick's celebration. We hear about annual Cinco de Mayo parades in many cities. This recognition of past heritage and present citizenship or residency is what America has been about. The hymn says:

In Christ there is not East or West,
In Him no North or South;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide Earth.

For Christians, the many flags and nations remind us of the fullest meaning of the World Wide Communion Sunday that we celebrate each fall. Some congregations may ask parishioners to process into church carrying the flag of the nation of their origin and place them prominently for all to see. Congregations where this has been done marvel at the colorful array of flags and celebration of a sincerity of multiculturalism. These congregations may then hear a sermon that focuses on God's open- ness, welcoming and accepting of all, based on Galatians 3: 27-28, "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The familiar hymn's second verse says: "In Christ shall true hearts everywhere Their high communion find; His service is the golden cord Close-binding humankind."

Today, the immigration issue ultimately gets down to the economics of job security and border safety.

Economics/Border Security

In an attempt to drive a wedge between the longtime generational-based African-American community and the new immigrants, we hear commentators argue that the jobs filled by the undocumented are those no one else wants. These are the jobs where industry does not pay or provide benefits for the worker who may come from our native born workforce. The African-American worker learned many generations ago that the true move into stability and the middle class often comes through starting at the minimum wage and working your way up, or through training in union jobs. Instead of fighting those who take these jobs for below minimum wage or below a union-negotiated wage, all workers will find they have to bind together to ask for a "living wage." (See the Living Wage Campaign at Harvard University.) Reminiscent of earlier civil rights movements, advocates may recall the African phase, "I am because we are." More than ever, the global economy has made us all interdependent: "If one member suffers, all suffer" (I Corinthians 12:26). The American-born and educated children of current immigrants will soon be asking for fair wages.

As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Specter (R-PA) presented a compromise bill; not as harsh as the House-passed Sensenbrenner bill, but not as open as the McCain/Kennedy bill. Some found this a hopeful development, but it failed just days before the congressional Easter break. News programs reported that there were almost 100 amendments to Specter's proposal. Some would have moved toward the House-passed version, and others would have picked up items from McCain/Kennedy. One good amendment would have supported the DREAM Act (to allow for in-state tuition for undocumented children educated in U.S. schools but who had no citizenship papers). Many of them came to the U.S. so young that they have no memory of the country where they were actually born.

Although not brought up for floor debate, the McCain/Kennedy bill has called for minimum wage laws and other workplace protections for the undocumented and other immigrant workers. This would alleviate some of the exploitation and put low-skilled, native-born workers on more even ground, as these jobs can be pulled out from the illegal-worker shadows.

We are not only a nation of immigrants: We are also what TIME Magazine calls a "Dropout Nation." This is our future unskilled labor pool. "Thirty percent of America's high school students will leave without graduating." (TIME, 4/17/06) A poorly educated society is yet another problem we face, for both the immigrant as well as the growing permanent underclass of the Americas - North, Central and South.

No one is seriously asking that the borders between the U.S. and Mexico be eradicated. In this day of terrorism, we still must protect against those whose only reason for living seems to be to destroy others. But our borders need to allow for the movement of those who want to work and support their families.

President Bush met with Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen in late March. The primary topic of conversation was security and economic cooperation between the three North American nations. As President Bush continued to advocate for a guest worker program, Mr. Fox talked about the need to create better economic opportunities in his country so that more workers stay or return from the United States with new skills. Opponents of a temporary guest worker program, which would have no incentives toward permanent work, argue that industry may be dependent on a continuing temporary workforce that would establish a second class status of worker in order to hold down prices for the middle and upper class. As New Testament people, we are " ... to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,.." (I Timothy 6: 18)

Nearly six million of the undocumented are from Mexico. (From the Pew Hispanic Center.) They want the same opportunities as the majority population, to become part of the middle class, with health care, housing and educated children. Mexico's Foreign Minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, is quoted in The Washington Times (3/31/06) as saying, "Mexico should assume its responsibility and take concrete actions to develop a series of programs in health, employment and housing in Mexico in order to guarantee that temporary workers return to the country."

With Mexico promising to do better for its workers, the U.S. should do the same. If this undocumented work force disappeared, the U.S. would be forced to look at a higher minimum wage, or even a living wage, for those who would be able to bargain for better wages and working conditions. "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages..." (Jeremiah 22: 13).

It is not coincidental that the reduced power and visibility of labor unions parallels the increased presence of a low-wage, undocumented work force that has been voiceless until now.

Historically, the United States appears to be dependent on the low-cost labor of the immigrant. This is not new. We have gone from the slave labor of the Africans brought here against their will to the nearly free labor of share croppers and Chinese railroad builders to the low-wage farm and factory laborer of today. This is a global problem, seen in out-breaks of rioting by immigrants in France and Germany. Neither nation offered their immigrant workers the option of moving up the employment or social ladder. France and Germany have turned a blind eye to their immigrant work force and have not provided a way for them to become naturalized citizens. These immigrants were simply expected to go back to their native country no matter how long they had been away from it. They saw no hope for their children's future, many of whom were born in the new country of their parents.

We can avoid these violent outbreaks by providing hope and a path to citizenship. The global south is moving to the global north. Perhaps if international trade policies were more fair to all workers in their native lands, they would feel less need to leave. In the meantime, as we depend upon the labor of the undocumented in our land, these Old Testament words are instructive, "You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns. You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt." (Deuteronomy 24: 14-15)

Rep. Tancredo (R-CO) has challenged the churches' entry into the immigration issue, saying they have no mandate and should not be involved. He would criminalize even those who help someone asking for humanitarian aid. The Catholic bishops have likened this aid to the "Good Samaritan" (Luke 10: 25-37). On December 14, 2005, the Washington denominational offices joined together by signing a letter sent to the House of Representatives to express disagreement with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437). The letter stated:

HR 4437 is the latest and most egregious in a long line of enforcement-only immigration legislation that has not and will not fix our broken immigration system. Instead of providing realistic and workable solutions, HR 4437 will criminalize millions of hard-working, tax-paying undocumented immigrants, driving them further underground; attack our fundamental constitutional values of due process and judicial review; and unfairly target U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.

We need a realistic and comprehensive approach to immigration reform that provides a path to earned citizenship; unifies families; provides a safe, legal and orderly avenue for migrant workers to enter the U.S.; ensures labor protections for all workers; and includes border policies that protect the nation's security and the civil rights of all individuals. Unfortunately, HR 4437 fails to address any of these important elements of comprehensive immigration reform.

The third line of the hymn says: "Join hands, disciples of the faith, whate'er your race may be. All children of the living God Are surely kin to me."

What We Fear

Democracy has been an important principle to the United States since its inception. The nation has learned, as exemplified through amendments to founding documents, that civil liberties and human rights are important elements of democracy. Advocates are asking that both citizens and non-citizens be allowed to experience this element of democracy as Congress considers changes to the nation's immigration laws. Some Senate proposals are antithetical to both democratic values and religious moral teaching. Some of these proposals would:

Expand the government's power to remove individuals without providing a hearing or access to a lawyer;

Concentrate power in hands of unaccountable administration officials to make naturalization, deportation, and detention decisions that would limit judicial review;

Allow low-level agency officials to have sole, unreviewable discretion to detain, deport, and impose monetary penalties — determine that an individual lacked good character, associated with the wrong people, or failed to comply with some provision of a departure order. This would reverse over 200 years of precedent and statutes that make the courts the ultimate arbiters of who may become a citizen;

Mandate detention or imprisonment of every individual attempting to cross the border unlawfully, with very limited exceptions including detention for vulnerable individuals — pregnant women, the elderly, and individuals with serious medical concerns. These individuals are neither a danger to the community nor a flight risk and should not be detained before a decision is made in their cases;

Expand government's ability to prosecute and deport asylum seekers and other vulnerable populations for minor offenses;

Expand the government's databases without mandating important privacy protections: the use of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database would be flooded with hundreds of thousands of names of immigrants without assurances that the information is accurate or relevant to apprehending criminals or terrorists. Employers would be required to verify electronically whether every single employee is legally entitled to work. Pilot programs have shown significant error rates in such systems, with particularly high error rates for immigrant communities;

Give state and local law enforcement the inherent authority to enforce complicated immigration laws and detain those whom they believe to be in violation of the laws. This may lead to arbitrary or selective enforcement of the laws based on race, ethnicity or religion;

The proposal could undermine local policing efforts, by discouraging people with immigrant backgrounds from seeking police assistance against domestic violence and other crimes, including terrorism, for fear that doing so may result in the deportation or conviction of a family member or friend;

Allow the government to jail indefinitely foreign-born individuals who cannot be deported to their country of origin through no fault of their own. The provisions would limit non-citizens who are being indefinitely detained to seek a hearing regarding their detention;

Turn the12 million undocumented immigrants now in this country into felons, even if they have lived in the U.S. for decades, worked steady jobs, and paid taxes;

Criminalize charitable workers who would be potentially subject to incarceration for providing humanitarian assistance to immigrant families and vulnerable groups such as refugees and trafficking victims. (Talking points summarized from the National Council of LaRaza, Washington, D.C.)

Civil rights leader Frederick Douglass said:

If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will. (Source: Douglass, Frederick. [1849] (1991) Letter to an abolitionist associate. In Organizing For Social Change: A Mandate For Activity In The 1990s. Edited by K. Bobo, J. Kendall, and S. Max. Washington, D.C.: Seven Locks Press.)

Action

Timing on any immigration bill is unclear at the moment. Advocates are asked to stay in touch with their elected officials. Primary points to make: We need laws to make our country safe; put immigrants on a path to citizenship; reduce family backlogs; and create legal channels for future workers. We need to look beyond enforcement-only solutions and proposals to authorize local police to act as immigration agents.

Advocates are working to ensure that the Senate addresses these provisions and passes a reasonable, constructive bill. Please stay involved. Call and write your Senators today! They need to hear from their constituents about the importance of comprehensive immigration reform and what it means to your families, neighbors, and communities. Anti-immigrant groups are calling into the debate and flooding officials with negative messages.

General Assembly Policy:

1977: "Reaffirms the actions of previous General Assemblies supporting the right of every employable person to a job, decent and safe working conditions and a salary adequate to meet at least his or her basic needs."

1980: "The clear responsibility of Christian persons to try to act out the redemptive love of Jesus in the world-a compelling claim of the gospel-must apply to labor-management relations as to any other social or personal relationship."

2004: "Resolution Calling for Comprehensive Legalization Policy for Immigrants Living and Working in the US"

Presbyterian Resources for Worker Justice

Interfaith Worker Justice - Call: (773) 728-8400 at the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.

Calculate a Budget for Your Community

The Economic Policy Institute's budget calculator provides custom budgets for different family types in 400 communities in the U.S.

Living Wage Web Resources

• ACORN, New Party, and the AFL-CIO and its affiliates, have made "living wage" campaigns a centerpiece of their programs, and chapters throughout the country are part of the growing movement to require businesses to pay their employees a decent wage. Updated information by the organization leading the movement for living wages.
• Comprehensive Living Wage Issue Guide by the Economic Policy Institute
• U.S. Department of Labor Minimum Wage Page
• Working Hard, Earning Less: the Story of Job Growth in America
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
• The Universal Living Wage
• A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future

Biblical Passage on Worker Justice

"Listen! The wages of laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter..." (James 5:4)