The end of Congress’
most ambitious effort in years to reform the nation’s immigration system has
effectively shifted the issue from Capitol Hill to the campaign trail, where
presidential candidates are contending with this divisive and vexing challenge.
Eroding support
for Republican candidate John McCain, for example, is being partly attributed
to his support for the immigration reform legislation, which he co-sponsored
with Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts. That bill died in the
Senate in June and ended immediate prospects for an overhaul. Among the bill's
provisions was an endorsement of a path to citizenship for many of the
estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Opponents
saw such a policy as sanctioning illegal activity.
Despite the legislative
setback, promoting immigration reform and aiding immigrants remains a priority
for religious many groups, whose leadership has been deeply involved in the
political debate. These faith communities often have different reasons for their
positions. But for most, the immigration debate centers on principles of hospitality
to the stranger, charity for the needy and justice for the oppressed — precepts
shared by most faith traditions. When it comes to immigration, however, those
views are not necessarily shared by worshippers in the pews. Americans consistently
rank immigration reform as a top priority, but a strong majority of those who
follow the issue want that reform to start with a law-and-order approach to
illegal immigrants.
Whatever the outcome
of the religious arguments, the legislative process or the presidential campaign,
the immigration issue — rooted in questions of faith, morality and the nation’s
religious history — will remain in the forefront as immigrants continue to flock
to the United States.
Why it matters
Historically, the
United States has been a nation of immigrants. It has also long been seen as
a harbor for religious migrants seeking freedom of worship. That is why the
Pilgrims first came to America, and why immigrants of many other faiths still
seek entry. Those immigrants continue to renew or transform American religion.
But many argue that wide-open immigration, especially for non-Christians, is
changing what is essential about the United States, including the nation’s foundational
faith traditions. Consequently, the debate over immigration reform can be seen
as a debate about American identity.
What's new
There are two principal
developments spurring public policy debate and religious involvement on immigration:
• The defeated
legislation on immigration reform. The National
Immigration Forum has an overview of the latest immigration legislation
and a timeline of its passage through Congress. The forum also has a link to
a roundup
of views from faith communities in support of the bill. Experts note that
while religious leaders were generally in favor of the legislation, many were
particularly troubled by efforts to ease immigration for skilled workers while
restricting the long-standing tradition of allowing family members to join an
immigrant already in the United States.
• New rules
on religious-worker visas that were proposed by the Bush administration in April
and are set to take effect this fall, perhaps as soon as September. The religious-worker
visa program was established in 1990 to help religious organizations hire foreign
workers they need to carry out their mission. According to a Religion New Service
story, an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people receive religious-worker visas each
year. But last year, the Homeland Security Office of Fraud Detection and National
Security reported a 33 percent fraud rate in religious-visa applications. The
new rules impose new restrictions that have been criticized by a host of religious
groups for a variety of reasons. Read the RNS
story, posted at Beliefnet.com.
Since the history
of the United States is largely the story of immigration, it is not surprising
that the history of nearly every religious community in the United States, from
Puritans to Muslims, is also a story of immigration. These are not static stories,
either. Religious groups continue to be affected and even transformed by immigration.
Mormonism, for example, is considered a “home-grown” American religion, and
yet today much of the church’s growth is in the immigrant Latino community.
The same holds true for Pentecostalism.
Yet many religious
believers are at odds with their leaders on the immigration issue. Experts say
economic anxiety — the fear that immigration costs resident Americans more
in terms of jobs and higher taxes than it helps the economy — and fears of terrorism
trump religious tenets on this issue. With that perspective in mind, here are
story angles and sources on the various religious groups with a stake in the
immigration debate:
CATHOLICS Among
faith groups, the Catholic Church in the United States has always been one of
the most vocal and prominent advocates for immigrants. Part of this is due to
its size; with more than 65 million Catholics, the church is by far the largest
single denomination, and that means the bishops’ views will be given a hearing.
But that size is also due to the large and steady influx of Catholics from other
countries in the past 200 years. Once it was the Irish and Italians and Eastern
Europeans. Today it is immigration from Latin America and Asia that is reinforcing,
and transforming, the Catholic Church.
• Kevin
Appleby is director of the Office
of Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
which works with both grass-roots Catholic groups and the bishops to advocate
for immigration reform. Contact 202-541-3065, kappleby@usccb.org.
• The
Rev. Virgilio
Elizondo is a visiting professor of theology at the University of Notre
Dame and founder of the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio. He
is widely considered the “father of Hispanic theology” and frequently comments
on the intersection of Latino culture and religion. Contact 574-631-4741, Virgilio.P.Elizondo.2@nd.edu.
• Sister
María Elena González is president of the Mexican
American Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas. The center is a leading
advocacy group for Latino Catholics and immigrants. Contact through Elizabeth
Eguia-Garcia at 210-732-2156 ext. 7156, eeguia-garcia@maccsa.org.
• David
Badillo is associate professor of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies at
Lehman College at the City University of New York and author of Latinos and
the New Immigrant Church, about the Catholic Church. Contact 718-960-6767,
david.badillo@lehman.cuny.edu.
• William
Donohue is president of the Catholic
League for Religious and Civil Rights. He has said that if the Catholic
Church wants to restore its credibility in the U.S., particularly among Latinos,
it needs to speak out on issues such as immigration. Contact 212-371-3191, cl@catholicleague.org.
• The
Rev. Allan Figueroa Deck is president of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality
in Orange, Calif. He has commented on the importance of Hispanics to the Catholic
Church in the United States. Contact 714-997-9587, afdecksj@loyolainstitute.org.
• Nancy
and Dick Bureson are lay missionaries working with Church
Without Borders, a joint project of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego
and the Maryknoll Lay Missioners. The project brings Catholics from the United
States across the border into Tijuana to visit impoverished neighborhoods and
to consider a faithful response. Contact 858-270-8007, borderproject@earthlink.net.
EVANGELICALS Evangelical
Christians are often, and mistakenly, viewed as a white, politically conservative
bloc of loyal Republicans. But the influx of Latino evangelicals is helping
to create splits and tensions among evangelicals in the United States. Moreover,
many leading conservative evangelicals backed the immigration bill that failed
in Congress, causing a political rupture with other conservatives, especially
in the Republican Party. For example, President Bush was strongly behind the
bill.
• Amy
Bliss is immigration legal services attorney for World
Relief, the development arm of the National Association of Evangelicals.
World Relief is involved with refugee resettlement and supports the Interfaith
Statement in Support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Contact 443-451-1992,
abliss@wr.org.
• Jim
Backlin is director of legislative affairs for the Christian Coalition. He has
said that respecting the nation’s borders is a biblical principle. Contact Michele
Ammons, 202-479-6900, michele@cc.org.
• The
Rev. Richard Cizik is vice president for governmental affairs of the National
Association of Evangelicals. Although the group’s humanitarian arm, World
Relief, signed a letter asking Bush and Congress to pass comprehensive immigration
reform that allows immigrants more avenues to become citizens or permanent residents,
the NAE itself did not sign the letter. Contact 202-789-1011, rcizik@aol.com.
• The
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of Sacramento, Calif., is head of the National
Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. He has criticized conservative
evangelicals who have spoken against or have remained silent on immigration.
The NHCLC sponsored a letter
to Bush and members of Congress in support of immigration reform that was
signed by several other leaders of Latino evangelical and Pentecostal groups.
Contact 916-919-7476, hispanicchurch@aol.com.
• Richard
Land is president and chief executive officer of the Southern Baptist Convention’s
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Contact Kerry Bural, 615-782-8419, kbural@erlc.com.
• The
Rev. Jim Wallis is founder of Sojourners/Call
to Renewal, and a backer of immigration reform. Contact through Jack Pannell,
202-745-4614, media@sojo.net.
• James
C. Dobson is founder, former president and chairman of the board for the conservative
group Focus on the Family.
It has not taken a stance on immigration. Contact Christopher Norfleet, 719-548-4570,
culturalissues@family.org.
JUDAISM American
Jews have traditionally taken a strong stand on behalf of immigrants and refugees
because of Judaism’s teachings on the issue and because of the lifeline that
immigration — especially to America — has provided for persecuted Jews. Also,
Jewish immigrants often faced the same prejudices and difficulties that today’s
immigrants face.
• Gideon
Aronoff is president and CEO of the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society, which supports immigration reform because of Jewish
religious and ethical principles. Aronoff has said that some of the same arguments
used against Latino immigrants today have historically been used against Jews.
Contact 202-828-5115, Gideon.aronoff@hias.org.
• More
than a dozen national Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee,
B’nai B’rith International and the Anti-Defamation League, along with many local
groups, endorsed a July 2005 statement called “A
Jewish Vision for the Future of American Immigration & Refugee Policy.”
It states that the United States shouldn’t place limits on immigration “because
of exaggerated fears that today’s immigrants will not become productive and
patriotic Americans.” When the immigration bill died in June, Jewish groups
strongly
criticized the failure.
• Ira
Mehlman is media director for the Federation
for American Immigration Reform and is co-founder of the American Jewish
Immigration Policy Institute. Unlike most Jewish leaders, Mehlman advocates
for changes in immigration law that would reduce the number of immigrants allowed
to enter this country. He contends that Jews could face increased anti-Semitism
if more immigrants are allowed into the U.S. Contact 310-821-4283, imehlman@fairus.org.
MAINLINE
PROTESTANTS
Leaders of the mainline Protestant churches and related organizations have generally
supported immigration reform, on scriptural and other grounds. These denominations
are trying, with varying degrees of success, to attract ethnic and racial minorities
to their predominantly white churches. Their support for immigrants is also
in keeping with their moderate to liberal political stances.
• Rick Ufford-Chase is moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) and a Presbyterian mission co-worker. He is a founder of BorderLinks,
a not-for-profit, faith-based group that offers travel seminars — a firsthand
“immersion experience” — for people wanting to understand U.S.-Mexico border
issues. Contact 502-314-2266, ga_mod@ctr.pcusa.org.
• The Rev. John Fife retired in 2005 after serving 30 years as pastor of
Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson. Fife works with humanitarian programs,
including Samaritans
and Humane Borders,
that provide food, water and medical care for migrants crossing the Arizona
desert. Contact 520-882-4879, jfife666@aol.com.
• C. Richard Parkins is director of Episcopal
Migration Ministries. He says the Episcopal Church supports immigration
reform that recognizes that many immigrants enter the United States because
they need to support their families — and says a system that punishes them for
doing so without acknowledging that the U.S. relies on such workers is seriously
flawed. Contact 800-334-7626 ext. 6252, rparkins@episcopalchurch.org.
• Ralston Deffenbaugh Jr. is president of Lutheran
Immigration and Refugee Service, an organization that serves both the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It helps resettle
refugees, protect unaccompanied refugee children, advocate for the just treatment
of asylum seekers and seek alternatives to detention for those incarcerated
during immigration proceedings. He signed a statement
on immigration legislation along with ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson
and 80 other Lutheran bishops. Contact Deffenbaugh in Baltimore at 410-230-2700.
• Camilo Perez-Bustillo is migration and mobility goal director for Project
Voice, the immigrant rights program of the American Friends Service Committee.
Contact 215-241-7529, Cperez-Bustillo@afsc.org.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
CHURCHES
African-American denominations have generally not been outspoken leaders about
immigration reform. This reflects a deep concern within the African-American
community that immigrants, who tend to migrate to urban centers where African-Americans
are concentrated, will hurt blacks on the lower end of the economic ladder because
they will accept lower wages, even less than the minimum wage at times.
• Read a June 13, 2007, New York Times story, “Village
Takes a More Hospitable Approach to Day Laborers,” (payment required) about
an African-American congregation in Mamaroneck, N.Y., that serves as an official
hiring site for largely Hispanic day laborers. One expert says very few of the
nation’s 65 hiring sites are associated with African-American churches.
• David W. Wills is a professor of American history and American studies
specializing in religion and black studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts.
Wills is author of the chapter “Exodus Piety: African American Religion in
an Age of Immigration” in the book Minority Faiths and the American
Protestant Mainstream. Contact 413-542-2470, dwwills@amherst.edu.
• The Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride, based in Seattle, is an effort, largely by African-Americans,
to promote immigrant rights by drawing on lessons from the 1961 Freedom Rides
of the civil rights movement. Contact co-chairs Steve Williamson, 206-441-8510,
stevekclc@igc.org, or Pramila Jayapal,
206-723-2203 ext. 207, pramila@hatefreezone.org.
MUSLIMS The nation’s
Islamic community has been at the center of the immigration debate, though not
always for the best reasons. Immigration fears spiked after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks and amid the subsequent war in Iraq and escalating concerns over terror
attacks by radical Muslims who may be allowed into the country. Islamic groups
have generally supported immigration reform as a way to protect the rights of
Muslims and to ensure that they receive equal treatment. Immigrants are also
a leading source of new congregants for American mosques. Opponents of immigration
often cite concerns about terrorism in order to thwart reforms. Experts say
that has made many Muslims and Islamic groups wary of speaking out on behalf
of reform legislation.
• The
Council on American-Islamic Relations is a leading Muslim advocacy group. In
April 2006, as the immigration reform battle was heating up, CAIR endorsed the
reform effort in a statement
and set out the principles it said should guide the process. “Anti-immigrant
bigotry and xenophobia should not be allowed to dominate this debate,” said
Corey Saylor, CAIR’s government affairs director. “America’s laws should reflect
our nation’s humanitarian ideals and immigrant origins.” Contact through Ibrahim
Hooper, national communications director, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com.
• Khaled
M. Abou El Fadl is an Islamic law professor at the University of California,
Los Angeles, and a 2005 Carnegie Scholar in Islamic studies. He also teaches
courses in immigration law, human rights law and terrorism, and gave testimony
to the 9/11 Commission regarding Muslim views on immigration reform and
the impact of stricter immigration enforcement on Muslims. Contact through his
assistant, Naheed Fakoor, 818-419-4445, Fakoor@law.ucla.edu,
or through Philip Little at 310-206-1131, little@law.ucla.edu.
• See
a ReligionLink
source list on Islam for resources and experts on American Muslims.
ASIAN
AND EASTERN RELIGIONS Nothing
illustrates the potential impact of immigration reform more clearly than the
1965 major immigration overhaul. In 1965, Congress abolished the quotas that
had favored Europeans and for much of the century greatly limited immigration
from Asia. The subsequent influx of Asians, who brought the pluriform religious
traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, along with Sikhism and other faiths, helped
recast American spirituality. Many ethnic and religious leaders from these countries
worry that immigration reform will start to close the door on their co-nationals,
many of whom are also Muslim. The conundrum for some politicians is that many
of the highly skilled workers that the United States needs also come from these
Asian countries and are members of these religious communities.
• Read
an essay
on the New Religious Movements Web site at the University of Virginia, by Timothy
Miller of the University of Kansas. Miller examines the 1965 immigration reform
and how it changed American religion and paved the way for New Religious Movements
and the many “sects” or “cults” inspired by Eastern spirituality.
• Dr.
Aseem Shukla is a urologist and a member of the board of directors of the Hindu
American Foundation, a human rights group that favors a more humane immigration
policy. Contact 904-424-9442, aseem.shukla@hinduamericanfoundation.org.
• See
a ReligionLink
source list on Hinduism.
• See
a ReligionLink
edition on Sikhs.
• See
a ReligionLink
edition on Buddhism.
Click
the map for interview sources
in your state and region
National
sources
• Karen
Isaksen Leonard is an anthropology professor at the University of California,
Irvine, and editor of the 2005 book Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious
Life in America. Contact 949-824-7602, kbleonar@uci.edu.
• Peggy
Levitt is an associate professor and the chair of the department of sociology
at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., and author of God Needs No Passport:
Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape (2007). She is
also a research fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and
the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She
is the author of The Transnational Villagers and a co-editor of The
Changing Face of Home. Contact 781-283-2186, plevitt@wellesley.edu.
• Lois
Ann Lorentzen is a professor in the department of theology and religious
studies at the University of San Francisco and is head of The
Religion and Immigration Project. Contact 415-422-2413, lorentzen@usfca.edu.
• Josh DeWind is program director of the Migration
Program and the Religion,
Immigration and Civic Life Working Group of the Social Science Research
Council in New York City. He was a founding member of the Center for Immigrants
Rights, National Coalition for Haitian Rights and National Immigration Forum.
Contact 212-377-2700 ext. 603, dewind@ssrc.org.
• Pierrette
Hondagneu-Sotelo is a professor of sociology at the University of Southern
California and an expert on issues of illegal immigration and the illegal-immigrant
rights movement in the United States. Contact 213-740-3606 or 213-740-3533,
sotelo@usc.edu.
• Diana
L. Eck is a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies in the
faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard Divinity School. She specializes in
religious pluralism in a multireligious society and since 1991 has headed the
Pluralism Project. She
is the author of A New Religious America: How A “Christian Country” Has Become
the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. Contact 617-493-1600, or a
departmental assistant at 617-495-5781, or dianaeck@fas.harvard.edu.
• Manuel
A. Vásquez is an associate professor of religion at the University of Florida
and an expert on immigration, especially Latino immigration. He was an editor
of the volume Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America. Contact
352-392-1625, mvasquez@religion.ufl.edu.
• Jeffrey S. Passel is senior research associate of the Pew
Hispanic Center, which has conducted research on Latino immigration patterns
and Hispanic attitudes toward immigration policy. Contact 202-419-3606, info@pewhispanic.org.
• Marshall Fitz is director of advocacy with the American
Immigration Lawyers Association, which argues for “comprehensive reform
that will make immigration safe, orderly, legal and controlled.” The AILA supported
the McCain-Kennedy legislation, saying it “would go a long way” toward fixing
problems with the current system. Contact 202-216-2437, mfitz@ail.org.
• Ernie Cortes Jr., the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award, is on
the executive team of the Industrial
Areas Foundation, which engages in community organizing to encourage social
change. He is widely known for developing leadership among Latino immigrant
communities. Contact ecortes@industrialareasfoundation.org.
• Janet Murguía is president of the National
Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy
organization in the United States. Contact her in the Washington, D.C., office,
202-785-1670. La Raza also has seven
regional offices.
• Jonathan
D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish
History at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., and director of its Hornstein
Jewish Professional Leadership Program. He wrote American Judaism: A History,
winner of the Jewish Book Council’s Jewish Book of the Year Award in 2004. Contact
781-736-2977, sarna@brandeis.edu.
• Ian
F. Haney López is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
An expert on race relations and law, he wrote the book Racism on Trial: The
Chicano Fight for Justice. Contact 510-643-2669, ian.haneylopez@law.berkeley.edu.
• Fenggang
Yang is an associate professor of sociology at Purdue University in West
Lafayette, Ind., and an expert in Asian immigration and Eastern religions. Contact
765-494-2641, fyang@purdue.edu.
UNIVERSITY
CENTERS
• The
Immigration History Research
Center is based at the University of Minnesota. It is an interdisciplinary
research center that brings together a variety of scholars.
Donna R. Gabaccia, a history professor at the university, is executive director.
Contact 612-625-5573, drg@umn.edu.
• The
Religion and Immigration
Project is a program of the University of San Francisco that researches
the role of religion and immigration in the San Francisco Bay Area, which, after
Los Angeles and New York, is one of the country’s most ethnically diverse regions.
The project focuses on immigration from Asia and Latin America. The Web
site includes a listing of project researchers and their fields of expertise.
• The
Immigration & Ethnicity
Institute at Florida International University has studied issues of religion
and immigration. The institute is headed by Alex Stepick, a professor of athropology
and sociology at FIU. Contact 305-348-2247, stepick@fiu.edu.
• The
International Center
for Migration, Ethnicity and Citizenship at the New School University in
New York City is headed by Aristide R. Zolberg, a professor of political science
at the New School. Contact 212-229-5399, arizol@newschool.edu.
• The
Population Studies Center
at the University of Michigan is a leading resource for information about demographic
trends in the United States. The center has access to dozens of scholars and
experts.
• The
Migration
Program of the Social Science Research Council in New York City has a Religion,
Immigration and Civic Life Working Group, which is headed by Josh DeWind.
Contact 212-377-2700 ext. 603, dewind@ssrc.org.
• The
Center
for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California
has a principal focus on the study of religion and immigration and its various
manifestations. The executive director of the center is Donald E. Miller, Firestone
Professor of Religion at USC. Contact 213-740-0278, demiller@usc.edu.
• The
Center for Immigration Research
at the University of Houston has a Religion
and Migration Project led by Jacqueline Hagan and Helen Rose Ebaugh. Hagan
is co-director of the center with Nestor
Rodriguez, chairman of the sociology department. Contact Rodriguez at 713-743-3946,
NRodriguez@uh.edu.
Background
SURVEYS
& RESOURCES
• The
Pew Research
Center has an archive of reports, polls and news stories on immigration,
with particular attention to the role of religion. The Pew
Hispanic Center does research and polls pertaining to immigration as well.
• Read
“Changing Faiths:
Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion,” a 2007 joint survey
by the Pew Hispanic Project and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
• The
Gallup Poll (subscription required on some articles) has surveys
on overall views of immigration as well as a June
2007 poll showing that “immigration/illegal aliens” ranks as the second
“most important problem” facing the nation, after the war in Iraq.
• PollingReport.com
has a roundup of surveys on Americans’ views toward immigrants and immigration.
• The
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has a June
2007 survey of views on the immigration reform bill.
