Bishops to go ahead with Arizona meeting despite immigration law outcry
Episcopal News Service. May 13, 2010 [051310-01]
Pat McCaughan
The Episcopal Church's House of Bishops will meet Sept. 15-21 in Phoenix for its regular fall meeting as planned, including an optional pre-meeting trip to the U.S.-Mexican border, despite public outcry over Arizona's recent enactment of the nation's toughest immigration law and calls for a boycott.
"It's an opportunity to be educated, to be informed and to make a public statement about solidarity with people that are victims in this, and there are victims on both sides, which is important to emphasize," said Arizona Bishop Kirk Smith in a telephone interview. "We will accomplish a lot more by being here, learning, hearing and responding about it and standing in solidarity with people suffering instead of taking the easy way out by saying 'Let's go meet someplace else.'"
The Arizona law aims to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants. Smith has joined state ecumenical leaders in protest of the law and has voiced support for court challenges to it.
The meeting's agenda had already included time for the bishops to discuss immigration, border issues, and evangelism, stewardship and congregational development among Hispanic populations, Smith said. After the law's passage, the meeting was expanded to include the optional border trip and the opportunity to hear from Arizonians on both sides of the issue. The diocese also hopes to schedule a meeting with the Coalition of Episcopal Latinos, which will be meeting in nearby Scottsdale.
Smith added that he hopes at the close of the meeting bishops will issue a public statement in solidarity with those most affected by the law.
"We're not doing this because it's politically correct, we're doing it because it's the Christian imperative," he said. "Do we really want to get to the point where we say before I can give you a cup of cold water, I want to see your papers? That seems to be the direction we're headed and that's tragic. We can do better as Christians and as a country. We can do this in a way that's humane and moral and less fearful."
Critics have argued that the law, which is scheduled to take effect later this year, may lead to racial profiling, wrongful arrests and discrimination of ethnic minorities; it also makes it a crime to offer assistance knowingly to illegal immigrants. Civil and human rights organizations, including the National Council of La Raza NCLR), the Asian American Justice Center and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have urged a state boycott.
Others, like the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, a national, nonprofit organization, have applauded the law calling it essential for national security.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's office issued a statement, in consultation with Smith, saying: "It appears to be the wisest course of action not to pull out, but rather to go to Phoenix, encourage as many bishops as possible to join in the optional pre-meeting visit to the border, follow through with the HOB planning committee's arrangements during the meeting to hear firsthand from speakers who will facilitate discussion on immigration and justice issues, and make a statement as a House regarding these issues."
The Rev. Canon Charles Robertson, canon to Jefferts Schori, in a notice sent to all bishops, said the presiding bishop "sees this as an opportunity for a show of solidarity, by a multinational church composed of citizens of many countries as well as immigrants and expatriates, both here in the U.S. and in other nations, to stand with all who suffer injustice."
Southeast Florida Bishop Leo Frade's first reaction was to support the boycott, but he said he changed his mind in part because of the Coalition of Episcopal Latinos meeting.
"For us as Latinos it is imperative to support our brothers and sisters in Phoenix. It's an opportunity to show solidarity," said Frade in a telephone interview. "We are also hoping to invite them to come [to the meeting] and be with Latinos from all over the U.S. It would be a good opportunity for the Episcopal Church and bishops to meet with and to stand in solidarity with Latinos."