On Thursday, May 11, community leaders including members of the Kent County Commission, the Grand Rapids Community Relations Commission, American Civil Liberties Union, Grand Rapids Equal Opportunity Commission, Arab American Association of West Michigan, issued the following statement urging comprehensive immigration reform:
We are community representatives from government, education, business, labor, social action and faith traditions. We join together to call upon our elected officials in Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation that establishes a safe and humane immigration system consistent with the country’s values. This is a historic time for us to help create and sane and workable reform that reflects Grand Rapids and West Michigan as a welcoming place for decent, hard working people who want to contribute to our community.
We are saddened when we see people in our community who work here but are vulnerable to exploitation. We are saddened when we see families torn apart for decades; when we see desperate people suffer and die trying to reach freedom. We are saddened when we see the sons and daughters of immigrants oppose the newest immigrants.
We know that immigrants do not impoverish our tax-base and our economy—they add to it, paying into Social Security and other programs that help us all. We know that immigrants have not blighted our towns—they have moved into crumbling cities and are helping to rebuild them, opening small businesses and demonstrating the entrepreneurial spirit that we Americans cherish. New immigrants care for their families, value achievement and contribute energy that enriches our perspectives and keeps our communities growing and thriving. A fair, comprehensive immigration reform will identify people who are now hiding, offering them the dignity every human being should have. When we know exactly who is here and give people a workable path to become legal residents, this will strengthen, not weaken, our borders.
Within the very short time of nine days, the House of Representatives passed complicated, far-reaching, and extremely harsh bill that allotted millions of dollars for detention, walls, and crackdowns, inventing new categories of crimes that could penalize even acts of mercy. Such “remedies” are poor uses of our money and resources, and might help push our treasured democracy towards a police state but still not stop the immigration problem.
We urge reform that is comprehensive—that considers the problem as a whole instead of addressing it in piecemeal measures. Stopgap proposals are inhumane and unworkable.
We urge measures that are not just enforcement-based. Our policy must engage the forces driving these waves of migrants and must work to repair this unfair system. It is a tragedy when people who may have a job or family here or may be starving or persecuted in their home countries are left with no way to save themselves and their families except by violating our current immigration laws.
We call upon our elected officials to enact legislation that:
- Will allow respectable people who are already working here to embark on a path to legal status,
- Will allow decent people in other countries a reasonable, understandable and timely method to earn the right to work and live here and become legalized even if they are without wealth and connections,
- Will allow separated families a way to reunite without spending years waiting for permission, and
- Will allow border authorities to check for terrorists and dangerous criminals while treating honest people with respect—when vast numbers of desperate migrants overwhelm our border patrol employees, they are not able to do their jobs.
We support comprehensive immigration reform because it is the right thing to do. As faith traditions teach us: “The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (from the Hebrew Bible); “serve God…and do good to…orphans, those in need neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer that you meet, [and those who have nothing] (from the Qur’an); “What you do the least of my brethren, you do unto me” (form Matthew – the New Testament,).
Immigration Reform has come before the Senate now and is in the news now. This is an important time to send our leaders this message: we as a nation built by immigrants must treat new immigrants with the respect and dignity that we would want anyone to give to us were we in a similar situation. It’s good policy: good for immigrants and good for us.
