December 14, 2005

CHICAGO – Almost everyone in the United States would agree that the country's immigration system is broken; the debate begins when they consider the many possible ways to fix it, according to Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr., president, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS). LIRS supports The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005, introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Based in Baltimore, LIRS is a cooperative ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod.

"There are some folks who think we just ought to have more enforcement – throw more people on the border in terms of border patrol, have higher fences and keep people out," Deffenbaugh said. "There are other folks who say, ‘Look, the economic pressures are so great that we will have people crossing over no matter what we do,' and ‘We need to have an immigration system that lives up to the ideals of our country."

Deffenbaugh said LIRS is observing that debate and the brokenness of the immigration system. "We see families being separated. We see willing workers and willing employers not able to contract for employment with each other," he said.

"We see otherwise law-abiding people, many of whom are members of our churches, who are afraid because they don't have proper immigration documents. They're afraid that they're going to get apprehended and deported," Deffenbaugh said.

"We also see, in this time of enhanced security fears in the United States, precious immigration enforcement resources being diverted for otherwise law-abiding people instead of being focused on those who really aim to mean us harm," he said.

Several factors make comprehensive immigration reform urgent, Deffenbaugh said. "One is the heightened security concerns after September 11. We need to be confident as a country that we do know who is coming into the country," he said.

Each year the deaths of hundreds of people trying to enter the United States across its Southwest deserts create urgency, Deffenbaugh said. "It's a shameful commentary that we have that sort of human suffering and death there," he said.

"Another factor is the increased pressure that we feel from families who want to be united with their loved ones and (pressure) that we feel from employers who can't find enough workers here in the United States, who end up having to turn to undocumented people for employment and who don't like to be violating the law," Deffenbaugh said.

Speaking Nov. 28 in Tucson, Ariz., President George W. Bush outlined a three-part plan to reform the nation's immigration policy. The president's plan includes some measures recommended in the McCain-Kennedy bill, but it directs migrant workers toward temporary status in the United States instead of toward permanent legal resident status.

The first part of the president's plan is "to promptly return every illegal entrant we catch at the border," Bush said. The second part is "to correct weak and unnecessary provisions in our immigration laws," he said. The third part is to create a "temporary worker program" that matches willing workers with willing employers for a limited period of time.

"True immigration reform should include a path to permanent legal resident status for hard-working, law-abiding migrant workers," Deffenbaugh said.

"Despite the inadequacies of the president's plan, the House leadership is taking an even more unworkable approach to addressing the problems of our immigration system. Their strategy is far from both the White House plan and the McCain- Kennedy legislation," Deffenbaugh said.

Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis. 5th) introduced a bill Dec. 6 in the U.S. House. Deffenbaugh calls it "enforcement only legislation" that "does not include any type of guest worker program" and that "proposes overly harsh border and internal enforcement measures that will drive immigrants further into the shadows, compromise our national security and tear families apart."

"LIRS feels that enforcement alone is not a solution. Reform must be comprehensive and include smarter enforcement, combined with measures to address the economic and social reasons people migrate," Deffenbaugh said.

Background information on the LIRS Web site notes: "President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders have shown the political will to change the current immigration system. Voices from our local congregations and immigrant service partners echo the need for a new approach."

LIRS espouses "four principles essential to successful reform: uniting families, protecting human rights and worker rights, ending the marginalization of undocumented workers, and providing a path to permanence."

Calling it "compromise legislation," LIRS said the McCain- Kennedy bill "goes a long way to carrying out the principles above."

"This legislation will help certain migrants earn critical legal status and (find) a path to permanency in the United States. It strengthens family unity policy. It also provides a system that will decrease the incentive for illegal migration, providing future willing workers a legal, orderly way to connect with employers who cannot find U.S. citizens to fill their jobs," LIRS said.

The Rev. Stephen Bouman, bishop, ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod, said, "The Kennedy-McCain bill offers bipartisan attention to the issue and suggests a reasonable approach, which acknowledges the need for security while moving the issue forward concerning a climate of welcome and hospitality for the stranger."

"For Christians of many differing traditions, the message of the Bible is clear about welcoming the stranger. We don't have to agree on public policies in order to see the neighbor in front of us and offer grace and hospitality," Bouman said.

"We're urging support for that McCain-Kennedy bill, and we're urging that people continue praying and continue reaching out a hand of welcome to the strangers among us," Deffenbaugh said.

"That theme of hospitality is woven into the Old Testament, the New Testament, our Reformation history and our history as Lutherans in the past century, but it's still something worthy to remember today and to urge us to try to overcome our fears of those people who are different from us," Deffenbaugh said.

ELCA News Service