Alabama bishop joins federal lawsuit against state's immigration bill
Episcopal News Service. August 1, 2011 [080111-02]
ENS staff
Diocese of Alabama Bishop Henry N. Parsley Jr. has joined his Methodist and Roman Catholic counterparts in a federal lawsuit Aug. 1 aimed at stopping enforcement of the state's new immigration law.
Parsley; the Rev. William H. Willimon, bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, the Most Rev. Thomas J. Rodi, Roman Catholic archbishop of Mobile, and the Most Rev. Robert J. Baker, Roman Catholic bishop of Birmingham, said in their suit that they "have reason to fear that administering of religious sacraments, which are central to the Christian faith, to known undocumented persons may be criminalized under this law," according to a Birmingham News report.
The new law is set to go into effect Sept. 1.
Like Arizona's controversial SB1070, the Alabama measure aims to identify, prosecute and deport undocumented persons. It empowers law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of people they lawfully stop and whom they suspect are in the country illegally and mandates that prospective employers use E-verify, the U.S. government's electronic verification system for employers to check the legal status of potential workers.
But the Alabama law goes further. It is unique in requiring schools to determine, either through a review of birth certificates or sworn affidavit, the legal residency status of students.
The bishops' suit names Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and Madison County District Attorney Robert L. Broussard as defendants. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for northern Alabama.
The lawsuit states that it seeks to prevent "irreparable harm" to the 338,000 members of the three churches in Alabama. It calls Alabama's new law "the nation's most merciless anti-immigration legislation."
Augusta Dowd, an attorney representing Parsley, said, "These religious leaders seek relief because the law will prohibit, under threat of criminal prosecution, Alabama citizens from exercising their First Amendment right to freely practice their Christian faith," according to published reports.
"If enforced, Alabama's Anti-Immigration Law will make it a crime to follow God's command to be Good Samaritans," the lawsuit states, according to the Birmingham News.
The law, if enforced, will place Alabama church members in the "untenable position of verifying individuals' immigration documentation" before being able to provide things such as food, clothing, shelter and transportation to those in need, the newspaper reported.
The lawsuit also says the new law prevents the denominations from freely "welcome[ing] all people to the altar" as well as the churches' right to freely come in contact with those subject to the law through denominational thrift stores and church day care centers and the performance of marriages, baptisms, and counseling services.
Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast Bishop Philip M. Duncan II has also come out against the law, saying he wept when he heard that the law had been passed. He said the legislation "would put me in violation involuntarily with state law because of my faith and religious convictions."
The Central Gulf Coast diocese includes lower Alabama.
Duncan said the law is an "edict to limit assistance and ministry only to those who can produce certain documentation."
"I believe, and the Episcopal Church teaches, that all people are loved and valued by God and that none are disposable and that we are to respect the dignity and worth of every human being," he said.