EDITORIAL: We can’t wait for immigration reform_12405

Posted: 1/21/05

EDITORIAL:
We can't wait for immigration reform

Try to imagine a long-term issue as vital to the future of Texas–and, not coincidentally, the United States–as immigration. OK; health care and education. But both of those big-ticket items will be impacted in one way or another by how well we solve our immigration crisis.

A package of articles in this issue of the Standard paints a face on immigration in Texas. The sheer numbers seem incomprehensible: More than 1 million residents of our state–about one in 20 people–are undocumented. In the harshest language, they're illegal aliens. That term, “illegal alien,” sounds more like a creature from a sci-fi movie than the person who eats at the next table in the coffee shop, the child who sits next to your son or daughter in homeroom, the fellow who mows your neighbor's yard or the believer who receives the Lord's Supper with you on Sunday morning.

Segregated as we tend to be, most non-Hispanic Texans rarely, if ever, worship with undocumented workers and their children. But they are here, in Texas churches. They're sisters and brothers in Christ, like Ernesto and Maria, whose story is told elsewhere in our paper. Read about them (click here), and then come back. …

Did you resonate with their longing, old as parenthood, to help their child fulfill her promise? Did you discern desperation that roused a man to risk his life for a better one? Did you sense the pain of two years between hugs and kisses? Did you feel kinship with fellow Baptists?

Hispanic Texas Baptists have felt all this, and more. That's why a Hispanic Baptist pastor prompted the Baptist General Convention of Texas to form an immigration task force. Out of that group's work, both the BGCT and the Hispanic Baptist Convencion of Texas have passed resolutions urging ministry to and justice for immigrants.

“The allure of freedom and the possibility of prosperity are in the hearts of all people,” the Convencion resolution asserts. Both resolutions note, “People are constantly leaving their homelands at great personal costs to seek freedom and prosperity, and … Texas has become the leading receptor of undocumented immigrants.”

The BGCT resolution points out the immigration system “unintentionally provides incentives for human smuggling and other exploitation.” It also says undocumented workers do not receive the protection of labor laws and are not even known to government regulatory agencies.

Both conventions stress, “The Bible teaches and the ministry of Jesus instructs that believers are to minister to the 'alien' and the 'stranger' in the land.” They also note churches do not violate any laws when they meet the basic needs of undocumented immigrants. They both call for ministry to immigrants “through prayer and action.”

The BGCT declares that the convention speaks “forcefully and clearly in opposition to systems that keep contributing workers in the shadows, deny security to our borders and hinder the search for freedom and prosperity.” Convencion goes further. It opposes “the current immigration system that hinders the search for freedom and prosperity,” and it calls for “the adoption of new legislation that would unshackle the immigrant.”

The conventions have powerful allies. President Bush told The Washington Times immigration reform will be a high priority for this session of Congress. He has proposed temporary work visas for foreign workers–however they entered the country–as long as U.S. citizens can't or won't take the jobs. It's not “instant citizenship,” but it provides for order, security, justice and possibility in the immigration system. Texas Sen. John Cornyn has been named chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, and he will promote the president's plan. Texas Gov. Rick Perry also has advocated immigration reform, and he should push the Texas Legislature.

Some Texans oppose any steps they believe would make immigration easier. They–and we–need to think:

Biblically. God's command to care for the immigrant and the outsider is a dominant theme of the Old Testament. And Jesus says our love for him will be measured by how we treat “the least of these.” If immigrants aren't among them, you don't know “least.”

Historically. At one time or another, we all were immigrants. Who are we to deny “the allure of freedom and the possibility of prosperity” that beats in the hearts of others?

Economically. If your only bottom line is the bottom line, recognize immigrants have been the engine of our economic growth. Thank them for taking hard jobs.

This issue won't go away. As religion researcher Phillip Jenkins (The Next Christendom) notes, global migration will redefine social, political, educational and religious realities.

So, keep on the lookout, and urge Texas Baptists, Congress and the Legislature to do right by immigrants.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard