Faith leaders say criticism of immigration campaign won’t deter them

At a press conference, Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick said such attacks, including those made by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., in a recent press release and television commentary, underscore that "we are going to have to make sure we keep our people with us."

Tancredo, who has become a prominent critic of illegal immigration, said church efforts on the issue misrepresent the religious beliefs of a majority of churchgoers.

Faith groups will need to be vigilant to keep up with how others try to shape the debate about immigration policy, Cardinal McCarrick said.

"Sometimes people hear things that scare them," he said. But while national security is a valid point of concern to be addressed in immigration discussions, he continued, "there are ways to do it and ways not to be doing it. The way we do immigration now doesn’t work."

Rabbi Scott Sperling, director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Mid-Atlantic Council, said the idea of passing immigration legislation that deals only with enforcement is "a simplistic and punitive" approach that "does violence to the faith community."

Hundreds of religious institutions and individuals have signed on to an interfaith statement supporting comprehensive immigration reform since it was first published in October. It quotes the Torah, the Bible and the Quran to point out that "our diverse faith traditions teach us to welcome our brothers and sisters with love and compassion."

It endorses immigration reform that fixes the problems of the current system with proposals such as: reducing the years-long backlogs of applicants waiting to immigrate legally; providing a way for at least some of the 11 million immigrants already in the country illegally to "come out of the shadows"; and offering a work permit program that protects workers’ rights and safety.

It also calls for border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values and with the need to treat all individuals with respect, "while allowing authorities to prevent the entry of terrorists and criminals" and pursue "the legitimate task of implementing American immigration policy."

Tancredo, chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, in a Feb. 21 press release called leaders of the Catholic, Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran, United Methodist and Presbyterian churches who criticized a House-passed immigration enforcement bill "left-leaning religious activists" who are misrepresenting the beliefs of "the conservative majority of churchgoers."

He said the church leaders have distorted what the House bill would do and "have impugned the motives of those who voted to secure our borders, in one case saying that the bipartisan legislation does not reflect ‘Gospel attitudes toward immigrants.’"

Asked about Tancredo’s attack, Cardinal McCarrick said, "We never said it was going to be easy" to pass comprehensive legislation.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr., an evangelical minister who is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said he was amazed at how shared interest in comprehensive immigration law changes have brought together diverse faith groups.

"It transcends political differences and denominational differences," he said.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches and a United Methodist minister, joked that after watching Tancredo on a cable television show recently "I decided to give him up for Lent."

But he also said that "when someone is as strident as he is against a church action it proves the faith community is relevant" to the issue.

The Senate Judiciary Committee March 2 began consideration of a bill proposed by committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. It includes some enforcement provisions similar to those found in the House bill. It also has provisions for temporary workers to address backlogs in family reunification visas and a way to legalize some of the people here illegally.

At a Feb. 28 teleconference sponsored by the National Immigration Forum, advocates for a comprehensive bill voiced concerns about some provisions of Specter’s bill, but said it provided a better starting point than the House version. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Immigration Forum and other groups have endorsed a comprehensive bill co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

The House version, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, passed by a vote of 239-182 in December, just 10 days after it was introduced.

Among the provisions of H.R. 4437 the U.S. bishops have criticized is one that would criminalize the act of being in the country illegally, which currently is a violation of civil, not criminal, law. The bishops also said the measure would put anyone who provides humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants at risk of prosecution. It also would authorize a 700-mile wall along stretches of the U.S.-Mexican border and make it more difficult for legal immigrants to obtain permanent resident status or citizenship.