November 2, 2007

WASHINGTON – The Rev. E. Roy Riley, bishop, New Jersey Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ELCA), Hamilton Square, spoke Oct. 31 at a news conference here on the impact of workplace immigration raids on pastors, churches, social service agencies and the children of immigrants.

The news conference marked the release of Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children, a comprehensive study of the social, economic and psychological effects that workplace immigration raids have had on children, families and the institutions that support them. According to the report, more than 5 million children in the United States have at least one parent who is an undocumented immigrant, and the number of undocumented immigrants arrested in workplaces has increased sevenfold between 2002 and 2006.

"The daily impacts in our communities, homes and workplaces from random searches that result in deporting parents and splitting up families are taking their toll on churches, local governments and social services agencies, not to mention the children," said Riley, who cited several examples from his synod and from the report "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families," released in February by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, (LIRS), Baltimore, and the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. "Where there are criminals among us we need to pursue them for the sake of safety in our communities, but Congress should call a halt to the random pursuit of undocumented people, because those who are being swept up in the net are largely families, parents and children who do us no harm and in fact help to sustain the economic life of this country," he said.

LIRS is a cooperative agency of the ELCA, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, and the Urban Institute jointly released the study and led the news conference. LIRS staff was also present at the event. LIRS partners with NCLR in its work on comprehensive immigration reform.

"This is a great study that's been prepared, but we shouldn't need a detailed study to tell what happens to children, especially young children, who are separated from their parents," said Riley. "We already know the answer to that. What we need is a report on how we got this way. How did we lose sight of the fact that we are an immigrant nation, virtually built entirely by immigrant people? How did we lose sight of the most fundamental of our democratic and family values: the protection of the most vulnerable among us, in this case the children?"

Also participating in the news conference were Janet Murguía, NCLR president and CEO; Miriam Calderón, associate director, NCLR Policy Analysis Center; Randy Capps, senior research associate, Urban Institute; Rosa Maria Castañeda, research associate, Urban Institute; and William H. Bentley, president, Voices for America's Children. All are from here. Steve Joel, superintendent, Grand Island School District, Grand Island, Neb., also participated.

Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children is available at http://www.urban.org/publications/411566.html on the Web.

ELCA News Service