A
leading objective of many religious left organizations is to
weaken -- and even eliminate -- most, if not all, regulations
and controls on immigration into the United States. Blurring the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, these groups depict any calls for the strict enforcement of immigration
laws as expressions of racism, ethnocentrism, and
xenophobia.
While
sharing all the major goals of the open-borders lobby generally, the
religious left goes a step further by incorporating also a spiritual
dimension into its activism – emphasizing that in God's eyes no person is “illegal,” and claiming that Christian ethics
require that all immigrants – regardless of legal status – should
be welcomed with warmth, hospitality, and compassion. The “sanctuary”
policies
that many large cities (and some small towns) have adopted to protect
illegal immigrants from law-enforcement authorities, drew
their original inspiration
from churches that provided aid to illegal aliens who
had fled from the civil wars that raged in their homelands
(Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala) during the 1980s.
The
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
embodies faithfully the religious left's position on most immigration-related
matters. Strongly opposing laws that would apprehend and punish
illegal immigrants in the United States, AFSC denounced Operation
Gatekeeper, a
government initiative that aimed to secure -- by means of increased
border patrol agents and fencing --
the San Diego border with Mexico, which was once the busiest
illegal-alien crossing point into America. By AFSC's reckoning,
such measures constitute “brutal” affronts to “the
rights and dignity”
of “undocumented” immigrants. AFSC has posted on its website a
detailed list
of strategies
by which illegal aliens can evade interrogation,
detention, or arrest by immigration authorities or police.
According
to
the National Council of Churches
(NCC), “comprehensive immigration reform” – i.e., a pathway to
amnesty and citizenship for the millions of illegals currently
residing in the United States – is both a “divine mandate” and
a “patriotic act.”
Pax
Christi USA (PCUSA) has launched a project called the People's
Peace Initiative, which condemns “the suffering and death happening at the
U.S.-Mexico border” when would-be illegal border-crossers
occasionally succumb to the desert heat. In PCUSA's calculus, the
migrations of impoverished Central Americans into the U.S. are no
less morally justifiable than the relocations of
“Appalachian … mountain people forced to leave their homes in
search of work.” PCUSA endorses the Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride Coalition,
which favors amnesty for illegal aliens and policy reforms to
diminish or eliminate future restrictions on immigration. Moreover,
PCUSA has given its organizational endorsement to “Justice
for Immigrants: A Journey of Hope”
– an initiative that seeks to bring about “a broad-based
legalization of the undocumented of all nationalities”; “allow
family members [of illegal aliens] to reunite with loved ones in the
United States”; end “the border 'blockade' enforcement strategy”;
and restore “due process protections for [illegal]
immigrants.”
The
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT)
maintain a seasonal presence along the Arizona / Mexico border, where
they conduct
“a campaign to challenge U.S. immigration policies that result in
hundreds of migrant deaths in the desert every summer.” CPT team
members “[hold] cross-border prayer vigils, remain alert to
vigilante threats, and monitor border-patrol officers' treatment of
migrants.” This campaign is conducted in close cooperation with the
open-borders organization No
More Deaths.
On its website, CPT encourages
American churches to help illegal aliens hide from immigration
authorities.
This section of Discover The Networks examines
the immigration-related objectives and activities of these and many
other key organizations that comprise the religious left.
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