WASHINGTON (ABP) — As the immigration debate is re-stoked by
legislation before Congress and the controversial anti-illegal-immigrant
law Arizona recently passed, an unusually broad array of Baptist
leaders and groups is backing comprehensive immigration reform.
President Obama delivers a July 1 speech at American University calling for comprehensive immigration reform.
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The Department of Justice filed suit July 6 in federal court challenging the law, which many view as discriminatory and encouraging law-enforcement officials to racially profile people they suspect of being illegal immigrants.
The lawsuit says that the Constitution gives authority to regulate immigration matters to the federal government and not the states and that creating "a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country" would make it harder for the government to focus on high-priority targets, like aliens involved in terrorism, drug smuggling and gangs.
"Arizonans are understandably frustrated with illegal immigration, and the federal government has a responsibility to comprehensively address those concerns," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "But diverting federal resources away from dangerous aliens such as terrorism suspects and aliens with criminal records will impact the entire country's safety."
"Setting immigration policy and enforcing immigration laws is a national responsibility," Holder said. "Seeking to address the issue through a patchwork of state laws will only create more problems than it solves."
Signed into law April 23 by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, Arizona's S.B. 1070 is the toughest bill on illegal immigration in the nation. Aimed at identifying and deporting illegal immigrants, the bill requires police officers to inquire into the immigration status of any person based on "reasonable suspicion" that the individual is undocumented.
The Justice Department complaint, filed also on behalf of the departments of Homeland Security and State, claims the law would "result in prolonged detention" of lawfully present aliens and U.S. citizens and "impose burdens" on individuals who may not have an acceptable form of identification, such as legal minors without a driver's license.
Warren Stewart
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Warren Stewart, pastor of First Institutional Baptist Church in Phoenix, was among faith leaders welcoming the lawsuit.
"Fifty years ago at the height of the civil-rights movement when state legislatures passed legislation that was discriminatory … bigoted … it took the federal government to step in," the Arizona Republic quoted Stewart as saying. "Here we are again. But we did it then and now we thank God the federal government is on our side with S.B. 1070."
Brewer, meanwhile, said the federal government should mind its own business. "As a direct result of failed and inconsistent federal enforcement, Arizona is under attack from violent Mexican drug- and immigrant-smuggling cartels," she said. "Now, Arizona is under attack in federal court from President Obama and his Department of Justice."
Arizona's Republican Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl issued a joint statement calling the lawsuit "premature," because the new law has not been enforced.
"The Obama administration has not done everything it can do to protect the people of Arizona from the violence and crime illegal immigration brings to our state," they said. "Until it does, the federal government should not be suing Arizona on the grounds that immigration enforcement is solely a federal responsibility."
The lawsuit came less than week after President Obama delivered a speech calling for comprehensive immigration reform.
"In sum, the system is broken, and everybody knows it," Obama said. "Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing and special-interest wrangling — and to the pervasive sentiment in Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad politics."
Introduced by an unexpected Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, Obama's audience at American University included an unlikely gathering of evangelical leaders. They included Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Leith Anderson of the National Association of Evangelicals and Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Land, head of the SBC's public-policy arm, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told National Public Radio that some prominent conservatives have taken him to task for his support of an immigration bill that would include border security and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
"I've had some of them appeal to me," Land said. "They say, 'Richard, you're going to divide the conservative coalition.' And I said, 'Well, I may divide the old conservative coalition, but I'm not going to divide the new one.'"
"If the new conservative coalition is going to be a governing coalition, it's going to have to have a significant number of Hispanics in it," Land added. "That's dictated by demographics, and you don't get large numbers of Hispanics to support you when you're engaged in anti-Hispanic immigration rhetoric."
Faith in Public Life, an organization of moderate and progressive faith leaders formed to counter partisan politicking by the Religious Right, recently unveiled another unprecedented "black-brown" coalition calling for comprehensive immigration reform.
The coalition includes Esperanza for America, a national grassroots campaign to support comprehensive immigration reform, and clergy representing several of the largest African American denominations — the National Baptist Convention, USA; the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
"We have come together to dispel the ugly myths about a black-and-brown divide on immigration reform," said Derrick Harkins, senior pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington and co-convener of the coalition. "Throughout our history, immigrants have strengthened our country with their hard work and commitment to core American values. Immigrants are not taking our jobs or public resources. The reality is that we are unified across ethnic and racial lines. We will not waver as we pursue justice on this human-rights issue of our day."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.