Gravely Serious Challenges Ahead:
Immigration Reform and Material Support
A Statement by Ralston Deffenbaugh, LIRS President

As our nation struggles to repair our broken immigration system, we face gravely serious challenges on two fronts: the immigration reform debate and the implementation of the “material support” provisions of last year’s REAL ID Act. The debate is taking an increasingly ugly tone and now is a critical time for voices of reason to enter the discussion. One would have thought that Congress would address these complex social issues in a comprehensive way, rationally taking into account the reasons why people come to the United States—for family, for work and for freedom—then thoughtfully crafting a legal system that provides a safe, lawful and humane path for those who mean us well, and employs smarter enforcement against those who mean us harm.  Instead, the debate has lurched toward an enforcement-only approach that would criminalize the 11 million otherwise law-abiding and hardworking undocumented persons present in the United States and force them deeper into the shadows. The bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December (H.R. 4437) would not only define as aggravated felons immigrants who enter or remain in the country illegally, it would criminalize those of us who follow Jesus’ call to “welcome the stranger,” serving America’s most vulnerable newcomers.

Act Now • Contact your senators about comprehensive immigration reform: LIRS Action Alert, Joint LIRS/ELCA Action Alert • Contact your your representative and President Bush about material support provisions. Who would be affected by harsh, enforcement-only legislation? A 17-year-old girl, born in the Ivory Coast, entered the United States last year. Her parents had given her a fraudulent passport and sent her from France to live with her brother. When she was taken into custody, it was clear she was unaware that her passport was fake. After learning that she would be forced to marry a friend of her brother, authorities refused to give him custody. This child arrived to the United States without parents and without protection and is now being held in detention among common criminals. LIRS could help this girl through our Unaccompanied Refugee Minors program or Trafficked Children Initiative. But under a law like H.R. 4437, instead of being helped, she would be deported.

Other deserving immigrants are also being refused the protection of the United States. When Congress passed the REAL ID Act of 2005, the “material support” provision was included as a measure to prevent terrorists and those who support them from entering this country. However, this provision, when coupled with the broader definition of terrorism brought forth by the USA Patriot Act, produces the unintended consequence of keeping out many refugees and asylum seekers who would otherwise qualify for entry. 

These include many groups who have backed opposition to brutal regimes or provided “material support” that was forced, was given inadvertently or was of an insignificant nature. Two such examples include the Burmese Christian religious and ethnic minorities who have supported the armed resistance to the Burmese military junta and Colombians who have fled to safety after having been forced to pay “taxes” or ransoms to armed guerrilla groups. Under this interpretation of the material support provision, the U.S. refugee resettlement program is already grinding down as thousands of internationally recognized refugees are being barred from entry to the United States.

In addition, tens of thousands more who have already been resettled in the United States as refugees or asylees may be denied adjustment of status to lawful permanent residency or to citizenship. Under this law and its overreaching interpretation, George Washington and the Continental Army would be considered to have engaged in “terrorist activity.” South Africans who supported Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress would have been excluded for supporting an armed group fighting apartheid. The German Jews who in the early days of the Third Reich were able to bribe the Nazis to escape would also have been found to have given “material support.”

Please take time to read the backgrounders on these issues and prayerfully consider responding to our calls to action. The war on terrorism is not going to be won through ill-conceived immigration restrictions. Nor will this country be more secure by turning our backs on deserving refugees and asylum seekers.

I join faith leaders across this nation in calling on fellow Christians to devote the 40 days of Lent to fasting, prayer and reflection on the need for humane reform of America’s immigration laws.

Act Now

• Contact your senators about comprehensive immigration reform: Joint LIRS/ELCA Action Alert
• Contact your representative and President Bush about material support provisions

Read More

• Backgrounder on Comprehensive Immigration Reform (MS Word doc)
• Backgrounder on Material Support Provisions (MS Word doc)
• Evangelical Lutherans Call for Fair and Just Immigration Reform (Statement from ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson and LIRS President Ralston Deffenbaugh) (PDF)

Listen In
LIRS President Deffenbaugh was recently interviewed by George Carden United News & Information. Their conversation about comprehensive immigration reform was distributed to hundreds of radio stations nationwide. We've spliced together some MP3 clips from that interview, each about 1.4 MB and each about a minute and a half long:

• Carden/Deffenbaugh Interview Clips, Part 1
• Carden/Deffenbaugh Interview Clips, Part 2

Posted March 10, 2006.