Browning Joins Church Leaders in Criticism of Immigration Proposals
Episcopal News Service. November 9, 1995 [95-1299]
(ENS) Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning recently joined other church leaders in a statement criticizing the proposed "Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995," approved on October 24 by the House Committee on the Judiciary. "With no legitimate rationales being offered for the worst provisions on immigration we see in Congress," the statement said, "it is clear that xenophobia has reached our Congressional chambers at a time when building bridges with our neighbors is most needed." The proposal has been forwarded to the full U.S. House of Representatives for consideration.
The church leaders, led by the Rev. Joan B. Campbell, National Council of Churches (NCC) general secretary, singled out for rejection legislative proposals to cap annual refugee admissions at 50,000, slash services to newcomers, revoke family reunification policies, and divide U.S. communities on racial and economic grounds by pitting newcomers against established communities.
Richard Parkins, executive director for Episcopal Migration Ministries, said that the very idea of a ceiling on refugee admissions was troubling. "How do we encourage other countries to share the burden of relocating displaced peoples if we can't be flexible and responsive when a crisis arises? A refugee ceiling signals to other nations that they can also close their doors."
Another aspect of the proposed legislation that worried Parkins was the movement to withhold certain welfare benefits from immigrants. "If you don't give these people assistance when they need it, then they are going to be in desperate shape. You create the circumstances whereby they are marginalized." Parkins also warned that discriminatory legislation reinforced anti-immigrant feeling in the community. "Over time as we build up this legislation to restrict, deny, detain, and remove, inadvertently you're legitimizing the mistreatment of these people."
The NCC statement concluded by reminding Congress that "the individual stories of newcomers have woven the tapestry of our country built by outcasts, and it is the powerful stories of Jesus Christ's ministry to people considered outcasts that have endured for 2,000 years." Amidst the current clamor to keep people out and to cut budgets, the statement continued, "we affirm the humanitarian commitment to welcoming the stranger. We call on Congress to tell the truth about the positive contribution of newcomers in the US and to pursue humane and decent policies on immigration...."
Parkins argued that in addition to debating the nuances of immigration policy, "proponents of immigration control need to be challenged on moral grounds. We need to say 'refugees deserve assistance because they are our fellow human beings,' and because it is part of our baptismal covenant 'to seek and serve Christ in all persons.'"
In a separate statement, the NCC also announced that its Ecumenical Networks Department received a $49,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for a national effort to heal communities divided by anti-immigrant bias, racism and xenophobia.
Entitled Building hospitable community: confronting bias, countering xenophobia, the project will invite U.S. religious and other local and regional groups to participate in regional consultations.