Across the country calls are being made to limit immigration and deport undocumented immigrants based on the erroneous belief that there is a correlation between high levels of immigration and crime. Although, research consistently reveals immigrants are less likely than native-born citizens to commit crimes, the misperception continues. The National Opinion Research Center’s 2000 General Social Survey, asked whether respondents believed "more immigrants cause higher crime rates" and 73% believed that immigration is causally related to more crime.
Immigration laws and enforcement are under the jurisdiction of federal authorities. Congress has the responsibility to create and enforce laws that pertain to the entry and exit of immigrants as well as define the conditions of their employment and protection from discrimination. However, in the recent past congress has chosen not to act on the issue of immigration.
In 1952, Ellis Island was closed and the United States moved away from a system of detention for immigrants unless they were deemed a flight risk or a danger to society. Under this system, immigrants were permitted to remain with family until mandatory court appearances. However, in the mid-1990’s this changed and there was an increase in mandatory detention without bond for many immigrants.
While being in violation of immigration laws is a civil matter and not a crime; men, women, and children are increasingly being incarcerated for these infractions. Detainees are under the care and jurisdiction of federal officers but since they lack the facilities to hold them they contract with local jails and private for-profit prisons to accommodate over half of those in custody. Since most jails and prisons cannot accommodate children, including nursing infants, they are often taken into state custody. Immigrant detainees are often transferred from state to state which can prevent visitations with children and hinder efforts to gain …
Current US immigration policy is complicated and governmental departments face a backlog of applications upwards of 5 to 7 years. If a foreign born person wishes to come to the US to work and live there are only a few ways he/she can obtain the necessary visa: obtain refugee/asylum status; win one of only 50,000 visas available each year in the US sponsored "lottery" (in 2009 9.1 million qualified applications were received for the lottery); or have a sponsor that is either employment or family based. While this sounds reasonable the parameters around these options are quite restricted. Since the …
According to a 2007 report from the Center for Housing Policy, American households, whether renting or owning, are under increased pressure to maintain housing. Between 1997 and 2005, the number of working families paying more than half their income for housing increased 87 percent, from 2.4 million to 4.5 million. When families living in severely inadequate or dilapidated housing are included, the total of working families with critical housing needs rises to 5.2 million nationally. Housing needs exist across “the housing landscape” from large to small metropolitan areas, in urban and suburban counties alike.
The biblical theme of “exile” guides this policy statement. After offering a working definition and an account of the historical context, the report focuses on two major themes. The first theme is “The Land of Exile,” which explores the difficulties and injustices endured by people with serious mental illness. The experience of mental illness disorders people’s lives in ways that exile them from themselves, their families, and their community. The second theme, “God’s Call to Comfort,” focuses on appropriate ways congregations can minister with and to people with a serious mental illness. Throughout this report, people are understood from a …
Guidelines for Congregations Considering A Request to Presbytery to be Dismissed
Presbytery of Northern New England
The Book of Order has little to say about the merger of churches (G-11.0103h), thus the presbytery has great flexibility in how it is done and the process can be tailored to each specific instance.
The goal of realizing equity in the church and the world for all of God’s children is sealed in Scripture, rooted in the Reformed tradition, and consistently mandated in Presbyterian policy statements. From its founding, God’s church has been called to provide a prophetic witness wherever and whenever equity remains unrealized. Whenever there are patterns of inequality that profoundly distort what is equitable—what people deserve and need to sustain themselves—not necessarily strict equality, then both the witness and the unity of the church are at stake. In the church and in the world today there is a disturbing disparity in …