The Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy entity supports — with conditions — legislation that would give the children of illegal immigrants the opportunity to gain legal status.
In a June 27 letter, Richard Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), informed two U.S. senators the organization would back a “clean” bill on the issue. Land told Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, that the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act must meet certain requirements to receive the ERLC’s backing.
The stipulations for ERLC support, Land said in his letter, include:
• A program to make legal status possible should be available only to those “whose presence in this country illegally is not a result of their decision.”
In other words, they were children when they were brought into the United States, likely by their parents.
• It would require those in the program to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces or gain a post-high school education.
• The legal status gained by those in the program would not be transferred to family members or utilized to bring family members into the country.
The ERLC will not support “backdoor amnesty,” Land said. “If [the bill’s sponsors] stray over into what is backdoor amnesty by allowing these young people, once they become legal, to then sponsor those who came here illegally, then we would have to withdraw our support,” he said.
“The appeal of a clean DREAM Act is that it allows young people who are in this illegal posture through no fault of their own an opportunity to earn their way to legal status by serving their country in the military or by getting an education which would make them productive members of society,” Land said. (BP)
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