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HomeCommentaryEvangelicals urge Obama to take action on immigration reform

Evangelicals urge Obama to take action on immigration reform

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Whitworth Professor Julia Stronks discusses the Christian response to immigration reform.
Whitworth Professor Julia Stronks discusses the Christian response to immigration reform.

Members of The Evangelical Immigration Table say the current system doesn’t meet Christian standards and are calling for a six-point bipartisan solution that:

• Respects the God-given dignity of every person
• Guarantees secure national borders
• Protects the unity of the immediate family
• Ensures fairness to taxpayers and respects the rule of law
• Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents.

The Table is made of pastors and heads from World Relief, The Christian and Missionary Alliance, Focus on the Family and dozens of other faith-based organizations.

Members say that although they didn’t all vote the same, they each want legislation that reflects Christian values and are asking for the president to meet with them within the first 92 days of his administration (The word “ger,” which means “immigrant” in Hebrew, appears in the Bible 92 times).

“Immigration is not just a Hispanic issue. Immigration is not just an Asian issue, European issue or African issue. It is a Christian issue. It is a moral issue. And how our country chooses to handle our immigrants reflects the character of our entire nation,” said Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals in a press call this week.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center there are 11.5 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.

Julia Stronks political science professor at Whitworth University, said in a recent lecture that numerous illegal immigrants are forced into prostitution (including many children), women and children are often victims of unreported domestic violence and young children are often forced to work in fields.

“In the U.S. there are 100,000 immigrant children who pick the food for us to eat so our food is cheap,” she said. “That number is staggering.”

She said progressives tend to look at immigration as a human rights issue, while conservatives typically look at is a jobs, taxpayer and crimes issue.

“Most Christians sort of go with whatever their political party says, but this (The Evangelical Immigration Table) requires them to build a unified approach,” she said.

Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners, said the Table is taking politics out of evangelicalism and instead using it as a theological term. “We stand ready and willing to work with both republicans and democrats who are committed to fair and just immigration reform.”

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Tracy Simmons
Tracy Simmons
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of FāVS.News, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.

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