Advocates at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), can usually expect a warm greeting from large evangelical groups wielding clout in the halls of Congress.
But this year, they’re getting a downright chilly reception to one of their priority agenda items: immigration reform. As Congress grapples with legislation regarding an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, the nation’s most powerful conservative Christian organizations have been watching from the sidelines. This occurs despite decades of evangelical initiative to make America a hospitable haven for religious and political refugees.
The search to explain the silence leads through several layers of reasoning. For starters, the Christian right says it has other issues at the moment, such as the confirmation of conservative judges and the battle against same-sex “marriage.” Beyond that, some suspect evangelicals don’t want to appear soft on lawbreakers of any kind. And on a level that plumbs the depths of what it means to bear Christian witness, evangelicals confide they’re still struggling as a community to determine the right thing to do.
For Southern Baptists, “there’s no consensus about what to do about the (illegal immigrants) who are already here or about how we would allow legal immigration,” said Richard Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Southern Baptists “see a basic distinction between people who are refugees, who are in fear of losing their life and home … and those who are coming over primarily for economic reasons and are not abiding by the immigration laws.” Because mass deportation “isn’t realistic,” he said, the denomination needs to wrestle with what to do.
The rule of law, when it comes to immigrants, also concerns Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. “We must remember that we all come from immigrants, as the United States is a nation of immigrants,” he noted.
“I respect the culture and diversity they bring to our great nation, but I strongly believe that each person must follow the law if they want to become a citizen of this country,” Shelby said. “The growing number of illegal immigrants that cross our borders each year is proof that our immigration system is broken and in need of reform.”
Evangelicals on the immigration front lines say time to wrestle with what to do is running out.
Near Tucson, Ariz., Maryada Vallet travels the desert in a pickup truck, stopping to not only feed undocumented border crossers but also wash their blistered feet. It’s a gesture from biblical accounts of what Jesus did for His disciples at the Last Supper.
Such inspired volunteer work, warned World Relief staff attorney Amy Bliss, could lead to federal prosecution if a bill passed in December 2005 by the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law.
“Anyone who believes” in the biblical story of the Gentile who stopped to help a wounded man, Vallet said, “should be outraged that … the government is making it a crime to be a good Samaritan.”
Soon the U.S. Senate is expected to start reviewing the House-passed bill in committee. Liberal religious activists say evangelical participation could make the difference between success and failure.
“To have the evangelical voice there (advocating) has been particularly important to this administration, which listens to them,” said C. Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries for the Episcopal Church U.S.A., a mainline Protestant denomination. “They have access to leadership that we’ve not had access to.”
Yet despite appeals for help from evangelicals at Baltimore-based World Relief and Fairfax, Va.-based Jubilee Campaign, the faith’s political heavy hitters have kept mum on immigration.
Amber Hildebrand, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Family Research Council (FRC), explained: “It’s not that we don’t think (immigration policy) is important. There have just been other issues the FRC has chosen to focus on.” Colorado-based Focus on the Family spokeswoman Gwen Stein gave the same reason for her group’s reticence to take a stand.
Led by evangelicals at World Relief, 42 national religious groups and 69 local ones signed a statement in October 2005 calling for a process to let undocumented immigrants apply for legal status.
In Congress, debate hinges largely on whether immigrants who pay a fine and other penalties should be able to then seek legal status. A bill proposed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would allow for such a process, while President George W. Bush’s guest-worker proposal would require the undocumented to leave after a designated period. Whether family members should be separated or kept together also looms large.
In November 2005, another group of bipartisan senators, including Jeff Sessions, R–Ala., introduced the Border Security and Interior Enforcement Improvement Act. The bill reflects the sponsors’ belief that lax border security is one of the root causes of unlawful immigration.
“Any improvement in our current failed immigration system must start with a legal system that works,” Sessions said. “I’ve been working at these issues for several years and believe this legislation contains many of the provisions that are essential if this nation is to restore the rule of law in immigration.”
Evangelicals’ hesitancy to get involved in the debate on immigration traces, observers say, to political as much as moral reservations. Evangelicals might be inclined to sympathize with fellow Christians from south of the border who have taken a grave personal risk in order “to support their families back at home,” Bliss said.
But evangelicals who appear unsympathetic toward immigrants run other political risks. They could alienate business interests, that is, political allies in industries known to employ thousands of undocumented workers. They could also run afoul of a growing foreign-born constituency, according to Manuel A. Vasquez, associate professor of religion at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and an expert on religion and immigration. (RNS)
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