June 26, 2009
Written by Rebecca Bowman Woods

On the day President Barack Obama kicked off immigration reform talks in Washington D.C., around 60 people gathered for a pre-Synod consultation to learn how people of faith can advocate for better laws and policies while standing in solidarity with immigrants in cities, towns, and rural areas across the nation.

Community organizer Norma Chavez-Peterson was the keynote speaker for the July 25 event, titled "Angels in Our Midst: A UCC Consultation on Immigration." Chavez-Peterson works for Justice Overcoming Boundaries and is a member of Christian Fellowship Community Congregational UCC in San Diego. She urged churches not to wait on Obama to reform immigration, but to "go wide and deep" by building local coalitions to push for change.

The struggle for immigration reform is "not just a policy fight," Chavez-Peterson said. "We're in a battle about our values, and who we are called to be as Christians, as people of faith, and as human beings."

Peterson shared her own immigration story. Her grandfather and later, her father, came to the United States, leaving their wives and children in the tiny village in Michoacán. After years of trying to grow enough food to feed the family, Peterson's mother took the oldest and youngest children and went to "El Norte" to find her husband. She promised to send for the rest of the family.

Her mother found her father, and when Peterson was four years old, he returned to bring her to California. Driving across the border, she had no concept of "legal" or "illegal," she said. Her only thought was that she would finally see her mother.

Baldemar Velasquez, director of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and Art Cribbs, pastor at San Marino (Calif.) Congregational UCC, affirmed Peterson's message.

People of faith must listen to the stories of those who have suffered, share those stories with people who are not exposed to their suffering, and be willing to tell our own stories, Cribbs said.

Jesus was "the original immigrant," Velasquez added. "From the time he was born, the authorities were chasing him."

After lunch, three Mexican immigrants shared their stories on behalf of the Michigan Organizing Project. Sergio came to the United States because his mother was here. He fell in love with a U.S. citizen, but they were unable to marry because of increasingly restrictive immigration laws, he said.

Gracynthia came to Houston with her boyfriend, who began treating her badly because she couldn't find work. She fled to Indiana, but when he found out she was pregnant, he tracked her down and beat her. She eventually met and married her current husband and they now have a family. Still, she worries about the women who suffer abuse, like she did, she said.

Martin still gets emotional when he thinks about leaving his family behind in Guadalajara when he and his wife emigrated. He came to the U.S. legally, but authorities questioned his papers and verbally abused him. He and his wife started a family here. One day, the children overheard a relative warning about immigration raids. They became so upset that they wouldn't leave the house.

Delle McCormick, executive director of Borderlinks, and David Ostendorf, executive director of the Center for New Community, offered responses to the immigrants' stories.

McCormick, a former Global Ministries missionary in Chiapas, lifted up the plight of women — those left behind, those who cross the border, and those who endure isolation and fear in the U.S.

To change unjust systems, we must first be willing to change ourselves, McCormick said. She urged participants to be careful and thoughtful in how they enter into relationship with immigrant communities they seek to help.

Ostendorf called on consultation participants to help the church go beyond "resolutionary Christianity" to "revolutionary Christianity."

The afternoon agenda included workshops on five immigration-related subtopics: labor and human rights; community responses to unjust laws and raids; theology, scripture and immigration; understanding the borderlands, and the causes of migration.

As a follow up to the consultation, organizers are creating a group on myUCC to keep the momentum going, said Wally Ryan-Kuroiwa, a member of the United Church of Christ Immigration Coordinating Committee, which sponsored the event.

The consultation was made possible through funds given to the Neighbors in Need offering.

Links:

Justice and Witness Ministry http://www.ucc.org/justice/.

Farm Labor Organizing Committee http://www.floc.com/.

Justice Overcoming Boundaries http://www.justicesandiego.org/.

Center for New Community http://www.newcomm.org/content/view/17/37/.

Borderlinks http://www.borderlinks.org/.

Neighbors in Need http://www.ucc.org/nin/.

San Marino UCC http://www.sanmarinoucc.org/.

United Church of Christ News Service