Last May, Wesley James Queen left death threats on the voice mails of the Rev. Simón Bautista, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington's Canon for Latino Ministries and other leaders of CASA de Maryland, an immigrants rights group. Yesterday, at a crowded news conference, Queen embraced the people whom he had threatened and apologized.
The Catholic Review Online reports on the hopes and concerns of those working for immigration reform. In the wake of postponement of a meeting with the President, reformers are becoming frustrated.
Daniel Scarpinato in the Arizona Daily Star
A group of religious activists were told to leave the state Senate Tuesday after they sought to voice their opposition to a bill designed to get local law enforcement to act on federal immigration laws.Now, the heated dust-up is underlining concerns about the Legislature rushing through dozens of bills in what may be the final days of its session and Democratic criticisms of the powerful GOP chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Even before the Haiti earthquake, the Gallup organization found that 700 million people, or about 16% of the worlds adults, desires to migrate to another country permanently if they had the chance.
The State of Arizona which already has some of the strictest anti-immigration laws in the nation is poised to pass new laws that will make anyone present in the state with out proper documentation guilty of trespassing. This effectively targets the children of immigrants who were brought into the country by their parents while seeking work. It would also mandate that local law officers enforce the law, removing any discretion on their part.
As part of the Good Friday observances yesterday, the Diocese of Arizona and the Presbyterian Church in Arizona walked the stations of the cross along the border wall dividing the U.S. from Mexico:
In a TheCommunity.com essay on Arizona's new immigration law former Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks about parallels in apartheid South Africa. He also says " I do not disagree with the calls to boycott the businesses in the State until [the law] is turned around."
Every major Christian denomination in the State of Arizona has expressed deep concern regarding the new law enacted which makes it a state crime to be in the state without proper documentation. But while everyone agrees that the law is troubling because of fears of how it will be enforced, there are significant differences between denominations about how to proceed next.
Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minn., is home to a congregation of Hmong - by now, second-generation American Hmong, who fled Communist takeover of the Kingdom of Laos in 1975.
The New York Times features the Rev. John W. Bowie, an unlikely champion of immigration reform in its story about a hopeful event in the heart of Texas:
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Phoenix AZ was the site a large inter-faith prayer service yesterday morning organized by religious leaders in the city opposed to the new law that would ramp up the pressure on undocumented people living in the state of Arizona.
Bishops of the Roman Catholic, Methodist and Episcopal Churches were all part of the service, as well as Evangelical, Pentecostal, Lutheran, UCC and Unitarian ministers. Two Muslim leaders and two rabbis took part as well.
