SB1070 Update: Evangelical leaders push hard for immigration reform

by David Safier

What looked like a simple affirmation of the need for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship, by the National Evangelical Association is turning into a concerted effort to sway Republican legislators.

[The National Evangelical Association] is seeking to rally support for comprehensive immigration reform. The campaign begins with a full-page ad Thursday in Roll Call, a Washington newspaper that covers Congress.

[snip]

The association, which includes members from 40 evangelical denominations, reached consensus on the issue of immigration reform in 2009 — almost two years after President George W. Bush's failed attempts to reform immigration — by focusing on the biblical material that supports immigration. (The group took no official stand on the issue during the last congressional debate.)

[snip]

The 2009 resolution calls for a path to citizenship for immigrants who are in the country illegally but "who desire to embrace the responsibilities and privileges that accompany citizenship."

It looks like this is getting personal. A church leader in Arizona was arrested and deported.

"Just last week, one of our constituents reported to me that one of the key leaders in their [Arizona] church was arrested and deported and the church is in a crisis because of that."

The dual hope for more pressure for comprehensive immigration from normally conservative churches is that they will search their hearts and their Bibles for answers, and they'll realize many of their beloved church members, God's children all, don't have their papers.