Pastor Eddie Cantu has seen the faces of immigrant Arkansans who maintain long-distance relationships with their loved ones.
One of his parishioners was long separated from her family while she went through the proper steps to obtain legal residency in the United States.
“She became a resident on a Monday, and on Tuesday she was heading to Mexico,” said Cantu, pastor of Centro Cristiano Hispano Assembly of God Church in Springdale. “She’s in her 60s, and her mother’s still alive, so she took off immediately.”
Most people in his church don’t have that opportunity- like the couple in their late 50s who haven’t seen their parents in years, he said.
Illegal immigrants don’t want to take the chance of returning to their homeland.
“I had one member from my church whose father passed away, and he could not attend the funeral,” Cantu said, referring to federal restrictions on travel by those seeking legal residency during the application process.
There is a Biblical basis for welcoming immigrants, he said, adding that a number of verses of Old Testament scripture forbid natives from oppressing foreigners and even urge them to share their harvest.
Cantu’s experiences led him to a group of Arkansas ministers who have joined a nationwide movement among faith leaders to push for “reform” legislation that will help reunite families whose members include illegal aliens.
On Nov. 16, Washington, D.C.-based Faith in Public Life announced it was mobilizing a “Home for the Holidays” campaign. The group formed in 2006 in response to what it describes on its Web site, faithinpubliclife. org, as the use of faith during the 2004 elections “in service of a narrow and partisan agenda.”
The campaign seeks federal immigration legislation early next year that would help keep families together.
Arkansas is among seven key states where campaign organizers are holding statewide call-in days to Congress, urging the changes as part of comprehensive immigration reform. The others are Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Arkansas’ first call-in day was Dec. 8, with more to be announced later.
In addition, members of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops plan to send a quarter-million postcards to parishioners, who are asked to forward them to their congressmen.
On Dec. 15, U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., wasamong those who introduced H.R. 4321, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security And Prosperity Act of 2009.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus joined with more than 90 House Democrats in introducing the bill.
Supporters describe the measure as an attempt at “fixing our broken immigration system.”
“It keeps families together, but understands we must secure our borders,” Gutierrez said in introducing the bill to the media. “It keeps people working but understands the needs of our economy.
“It gives a pathway to citizenship but understandsthat immigrants must learn English, pay taxes and contribute to their communities.”
B e s i d e s Ca n t u , fa i t h leaders who are fronting the campaign in Arkansas are: Bishop Anthony Taylor, head of the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock; Pastor Wendell Griffen of the New Millennium Church in Little Rock and a former Arkansas Court of Appeals judge; and Rev. Stephen Copley, director of Arkansas Justice for Our Neighbors, part of a nationwide ministry of the United Methodist Church.
“Why, from a faith perspective, are we interested in immigration?” Copley said. “Of the millions of immigrants who are here in our country, many, many are forced to come from poor economic situations.”
They come to help support their families, he said, adding that Americans should support their efforts because passages throughout the Bible talk of caring for the “strangers in our midst.”
“The families either can’t come here, or they can’t go visit their families,” Copley said, adding that both immigration restrictions and economics come into play.
He cited as an example an immigrant living in the United States as a legal, permanent resident who petitions for his spouse to become a permanent resident as well, rather than applying for a tourist visa.
Copley knows of some instances in which a backlog of such applications results in waits of up to 15 years.
“You might argue a year or two is too long - but say, 15, 16 years?” he said. “That is certainly an inordinate amount of time, and certainly one area in which we need to see some reform.”
As for those already in the United States illegally or who lack the documents to prove their status, Copley said, the group is not seeking “amnesty” for them, but rather an “earned pathway to citizenship” that includes paying a monetary fine.
“Here we go again,” said Jeannie Burlsworth of Little Rock, chair of Secure Arkansas.
“This ‘Home for the Holidays’ - I don’t buy that, don’t buy that,” she said. “What they’re trying to do is put another spin on this, another slant on this. They’re trying to frost over this.”
“Comprehensive immigration reform - all that is, is amnesty.”
Considering the nation’s current economic struggles, Burlsworth said, piling more housing, health-care and other costs onto the American taxpayers is just not right.
“I don’t think we can afford to support relatives,” she said Tuesday.
On Oct. 14, Secure Arkansas gained the state attorney general’s approval for a ballot title and popular-name language for a proposed constitutional amendment that would deny some public benefits to illegal immigrants.
Un d e r t h e p ro p o s e d amendment, state agencies would be required to verify the “lawful presence” of anyone older than 14 who applies for public assistance such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, college scholarships, financial aid and in-state tuition.
It also would bar illegal aliens from registering vehicles or receiving federal benefits such as retirement, welfare, disability and housing assistance that are administered by state agencies, among other things.
A similar measure in 2008 backed by Secure Arkansas fell nearly 6,000 signatures short of the minimum 61,974 needed, according to newspaper archives.
The current proposed constitutional amendment would require 77,468 signatures to make the 2010 election ballot, according to the group’s Web site, securearkansas.com.
“We just can’t afford to have this open checkbook policy,” Burlsworth said. “We’re not against legal immigration - we’re just against illegal immigration.”
Two state legislators who led a 2007 study of illegal immigrants’ effect on state government also questioned the Home for the Holidays campaign.
“I think what we’ve got here is a group of people ... that believe in showing good will toward mankind as the Bible teaches,” said Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren. “We also have a set of laws in this country that preclude that.”
“We could extend good will to where people don’t have to obey traffic laws or pay their taxes,” he said. “As a lawmaker, I have to side with the law. We are a nation of laws.”
Rep. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, said the timing for the federal immigration effort is off in a couple of ways.
“Right now, we need to look at whether granting a pathway to citizenship is the right message,” he said.
“We’ve got a high level of unemployed Arkansans right now, and the unemployment rate in the nation now is high. So a group advocating putting more unskilled workers into the work force - is this in the best interests of a nation that is high in debt?”
Woods said he prefers immigration reform that targets screening and bringing in more highly skilled workers and matching them to the needs of America’s labor market.
“The message that should be sent to Congress is that the guest-worker program, on the federal level, does need to be looked at,” he said.
Green suggested that a single issue, like the 15-year wait for legal resident aliens seeking approval to bring family to the United States, might better be solved without its inclusion in a comprehensive immigration bill.
“Certainly, I’m in favor of streamlining the process,” Green said. “You should tackle one issue at a time.”
Woods said he understands the frustrations of those who favor immigration changes, adding the wheels of change turn slowly in Washington.
“This group senses that it will take a while, and with the Democratic majority, the time is now,” Woods said. “And there is this sense of urgency because of that.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 12/25/2009