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| Learn more about the PCUSA Office of Immigration Issues here |
February 10, 2015
Dear Members of
Congress,
I write to you
today on behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to
express concern about H.R. 399, Secure Our Borders First Act of 2015.
For years there
has been bipartisan agreement that our nation’s immigration laws are in need of
reform. This notion is well-founded in fact with backlogs in family-based
immigration more than twenty years long[1]and hundreds of persons
perishing along our southern border each year.[2] Yet session after session,
year after year no relief is forthcoming. The explanation for this inaction is
always the same:
“We must secure
our borders first.”
At first blush
this premise seems reasonable but, in truth, it is immoral as it denies the
value and dignity of the persons swept up in its grasp. In the name of border
security this country has created Operation Streamline, built hundreds of miles
of fence, created family detention centers, expedited removals, and doubled the
size of customs and border protection. This country has bound up “heavy
burdens, hard to bear, and [laid] them on the shoulders of [migrant men, women,
and children]”[3]
in the name of justice and rule of law all the while acknowledging that the law
we are so stridently protecting is so deeply broken.
The human lives
caught up in this border security strategy are mothers and fathers, workers,
church members, and long-time residents of the United States.[4] In our faith tradition, we
are to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is the greatest commandment of all,
second only to loving our God.[5] What, then, would I want
if a border separated me from my child, my job, my faith community, the place I
considered home? What would I be willing to do to be reunited with the life I
had created and the people whom I love?[6] This years-long strategy
of enforcement alone turns a blind eye to the misery it creates. It neglects
mercy and denies our common humanity. It creates criminals of parents and workers
whom are just trying to get back to the place they call home in order to parent
and work. Even worse, it sometimes kills parents and workers forced to trust
coyotes and forced to cross in the most dangerous regions of our southern
border.
Securing our
borders first is further immoral as it is a moving target that changes with
each administration and every session of Congress. In 2011, former Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared our border was secure, yet relief
did not follow.[7]
Now the truth we have all feared has come to light in the language of H.R. 399;
a secure border is a perfect border. One in which “operational control” must be
achieved and maintained and “operational control” is defined as, “the
prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by
terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and
other contraband.”[8]
The veil of rationality within the demand to “secure our borders first” is
lifted with that definition and the truth is revealed. No level of border
security will ever satisfy those that have proffered their support of this
bill.
Members of
Congress, I implore you to search your hearts. I am certain that the majority
of you do not want what this bill requires. I assure you, your constituents do
not want what this bill requires. Please oppose H.R. 399 and stop proposing
security strategy after security strategy while turning a blind eye to the 11
million who are so desperate for the meaningful relief that only comprehensive
immigration reform can afford.
In Christ,
The Reverend Gradye Parsons
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
[1] http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/bulletin/2015/visa-bulletin-for-february-2015.html.
[2]http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USBP%20Stats%20FY2014%20sector%20profile.pdf.
[3]
Matthew 23:4.
[4]
http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/unauthorized-immigrants-today-demographic-profile.
[6]http://las.arizona.edu/sites/las.arizona.edu/files/UA_Immigration_Report2013web.pdf.
[7]
http://www.dhs.gov/news/2011/10/05/secretary-napolitanos-remarks-smart-effective-border-security-and-immigration.
[8]
8 U.S.C. 1701 note.
