Faith Community Hails Obama Immigration Speech as Step Forward, Unveils Coordinated Campaign to Keep Up Momentum

On July 1, I was one of four faith leaders from New York to speak at a press conference in Lafayette Park near the White House after President Obama’s major speech on Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  The press release below is from “Faith in Public Life.” – Gary Wiley, Pastor of Justice and Care

Meeting with White House officials, Letter to Obama from nearly 600 Faith Leaders, Innovative Grassroots Events

WASHINGTON, DC— Hours after President Obama delivered a major speech on immigration today religiously diverse leaders gathered in front of the White House to applaud the President’s commitment to comprehensive reform as a major step forward and urge Congress to build on this momentum and pass legislation this year.  The interfaith delegation announced a letter to the President from nearly 600 faith leaders, which they hand-delivered this afternoon in a meeting with White House officials, and unveiled a coordinated month of action from the faith community for immigration reform: “Justice July.”

As Americans across the country celebrate Independence Day and Members of Congress return home for the July 4th Congressional recess, the President’s remarks that “Being an American is not a matter of blood or birth… It’s a matter of faith, of shared fidelity to the ideas and values that we hold so dear” ring truer than ever.

“We stand here today to call on our President to do everything in his power to maintain the integrity of our nation. Our core values and interests are at stake,” said Lisa Sharon Harper, Executive Director of New York Faith and Justice, who was invited to attend President Obama’s speech.  “The faith community will not let up.  We see firsthand the brokenness of our system and its devastating effects on families across the country, and we will continue to be powerful advocates for comprehensive reform.”

Faith leaders will be calling on elected officials to pass immigration reform that lives up to our American values with “Justice July”: an innovative, multifaceted national mobilization organized by people people of faith, fighting for immigration reform and reminding political leaders of the cost of federal inaction—draconian state-level legislation like Arizona’s SB-1070.  The coordinated action, involving numerous vigils, “pulpit swaps,” public events and petitions, will launch on the July 4th weekend and continue throughout the month, culminating with a major event at the end of the month to stand with the people of Arizona as SB-1070 takes effect on July 28.

The shock waves from Arizona’s punitive legislation are being felt in communities across the country. “Recently, Sikh truck drivers who are U.S. citizens have reported being stopped and asked for their immigration papers each time they make deliveries or pass through Arizona,” said Hansdeep Singh, staff attorney at UNITED SIKHS.  “This type of racial profiling speaks specifically to the type of collective punishment that is already being assessed against immigrant communities, even when the law is not currently in effect…. We must mobilize our communities to work together in safe-guarding the dignity of all immigrant communities. “

Rev. Gary Wiley, a white evangelical pastor at Trinity Grace Church in New York, said he realized that if he were to travel to Arizona with his family, he fears his Peruvian son, son-in-law and grandchildren would be victims of racial profiling.  Facing these injustices has reaffirmed his commitment to fight for immigration reform, even prompting him to take part in a nonviolent protest, where he was arrested and charged with civil disobedience.  “I come from a long line of believers inspired by faith to confront injustice. Jesus now calls me to put feet to my faith and speak out against an immigration system that violates God’s commandment to love our neighbors and undermines the sacred dignity of all human beings,” Wiley said. “As a political conservative and card-carrying Republican, I’m here to remind Republican members of Congress that immigration reform is about protecting family values and doing what’s morally right.”

“I speak today as a Pentecostal Evangelical Latino Christian,” said Rev. Ray Rivera, President and CEO of the Latino Pastoral Action Center in the Bronx, as he extended an invitation to evangelicals across racial lines. “I want to make a special appeal to white evangelicals…our brothers and sisters… certainly those that make up a big part of the Republican Party, to join the effort for immigration reform, to follow the courageous leaders from that community that are beginning to emerge.”

As religious leaders from New York, the delegation had a message not only for the President and Congressional Republicans, but also for their Senator Chuck Schumer, standing behind his leadership in the Senate on the issue and encouraging him to help deliver immigration reform this year.

The group bridged racial and religious divides, finding cause for common concern on immigration reform across their faith traditions. “For some 2000 years, Jews have been migrants, exiles and refugees, forced to flee and seek sanctuary. So when the Torah states, “You know the heart of the stranger, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt”, it resonates deeply with our communal historical experience,” said Rabbi Michael Feinberg, executive director of the Greater New York Labor -Religion Coalition. “It is in an effort to be faithful to this ethical imperative that the Jewish community joins the broad interfaith movement to pass just, humane and comprehensive immigration reform.”

The delegation of religious leaders met with White House officials after the press conference to deliver a letter from nearly 600 evangelical and mainline Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh leaders, urging the President to help deliver comprehensive immigration reform “that both protects our interests and abides by our values” and reminding the Administration of the moral urgency of passing immigration reform.   Dr. Diane Steinman, co-chair of the New York State Interfaith Network for Immigration Reform (which spearheaded the letter) and Director of American Jewish Committee New York said, “We urge President Obama to vigorously advocate passage of comprehensive immigration reform this year.  Our current system violates the moral values of our nation and of our nation’s diverse faith communities.  Politics cannot be allowed to stand in the way of reform, and faith community leaders are prepared to be his partners in the effort.”

“Justice July,” a month-long coordinated mobilization of people of faith calling for immigration reform, will include:

• Letter from nearly 600 faith leaders to President Obama, urging action this year on immigration reform and reminding him of the moral and pragmatic imperatives of reform, coordinated by the New York State Interfaith Network for Immigration Reform
• “Pulpit swaps” in 15 states across the country, coordinated by Interfaith Worker Justice (immigrant pastors will switch places with non-immigrant pastors for a worship service)
• Vigils in dozens of states as part of the Isaiah 58 Summer, a nationwide  “rolling” prayer vigil and fast moving from region to region, as people of faith stand with Arizona as they face extreme anti-immigrant legislation and pray for comprehensive reform, coordinated by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition
• Interfaith prayer vigil and coordinated civil disobedience in Arizona on July 29th as SB-1070 goes into effect, coordinated by Interfaith Worker Justice
• Clergy preaching from the pulpit on the need for comprehensive immigration reform in Houston on July 4th Sunday, coordinated by the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation

In early May, the faith community led an Immigrant Sabbath and Prayer for Immigrants weekend with events in Missouri, Texas, Kansas, New York, California, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida and Ohio.  Earlier in the year, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C. for the March FOR America: Change Takes Courage and Faith to rally for immigration reform, and people of faith organized hundreds of grassroots events and sent hundreds of thousands of pro-reform postcards to Members of Congress.

Kristin Williams

Press Secretary

Faith in Public Life

1101 Vermont Ave NW, 9th Floor

Washington, DC 20005