Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
As you know, the U.S. Senate is in the process of considering an immigration reform bill. It is presently in the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. The Episcopal Church, in recent General Conventions, and our last Diocesan Convention passed resolutions calling on our government to institute immigration reform that will balance care for all human beings and our scriptural mandate to welcome the stranger with our country's security needs. Eight senators, the so-called Gang of Eight, have crafted legislation to move our nation closer to laws consistent with the position of General Convention. That draft legislation, while not perfect from anyone's perspective, is an improvement on our current situation. However, some of the amendments, particularly some of those up for consideration next week, could seriously undermine the progressive elements of the legislation and move it away from what our Church has advocated.
I ask that you make an effort to encourage your parishioners to educate themselves on this issue and to take action by contacting senators on the Judiciary Committee, particular Senator Feinstein of California and Jeff Flake of Arizona. These contacts will make a difference. In these calls, individuals should be encouraged to urge senators to:
- Protect a broadly designed legalization program, with U.S. citizenship as the end of that process.
- Legalization would benefit nearly one out of every ten workers in California, and 13 percent of the state's children, mostly U.S. citizens who have at least one undocumented parent.
- We need to protect the provision that enables persons who were previously deported, only for immigration violations, to apply for legalization. If this provision is deleted, millions of undocumented people on both sides of the border will be excluded from the program.
- We need to make the legalization process a reasonable length. Thirteen years - the current Senate proposal - is already too long. Fifteen years - the House proposal - is simply unwarranted. Under the Senate proposal it would take at least ten years to just get a green card.
- Avoid making legalization so contingent on achieving border enforcement goals that it never goes into effect. The Senate proposal already contains several border security triggers - stringent goals that have to be met before a single undocumented immigrant could apply to begin the legalization process. The proposed goals are highly ambitious, perhaps unattainable. Setting the border enforcement bar even higher could effectively doom a legalization program before it begins.This is what Congressional opponents of comprehensive immigration reform want to happen.
- Include funding to expand access to English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) training to immigrants who start the legalization process. Under current law, if they are below 50 years of age, immigrants seeking naturalization must take a Civics test in English. Already, lack of access to ESL programs is the single most important impediment to naturalization. If a broad legalization program is launched without greatly expanding ESL training capacity, many applicants will be unable to complete the process. This is the critically important part of the infrastructure needed to make a broad legalization program successful.
- Extend green card-sponsorship rights to married gay and lesbian couples, who are currently excluded from the Senate and House proposals. Excluding LGBT couples from the family reunification benefits afforded by the Senate and House proposals is a glaring, morally indefensible omission.
- Defend the recently passed amendment that requires immigration officers to ask persons whom they detain about how spouses and children living with them might be affected by their detention and deportation. Even if a legalization program becomes law, large-scale deportation of immigrants who have not yet applied for legal status or do not qualify for it will continue in the foreseeable future. The U.S. currently deports nearly 400,000 persons a year - nearly two million since President Obama took office. The family separations and hardships resulting from continuing large-scale deportations would be reduced if family unity and child health and safety were explicitly considered when detaining or repatriating an unauthorized immigrant.
You and members of your congregation can act by visiting the Episcopal Public Policy Network's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheEPPN for updates. Then you can easily call this toll free number, 1-866-940-2439, to leave a message for specific senators' offices.
Thank you in advance for assisting with this. In a very real way, this is how we can live out our diocesan vision: Undeterred by borders or barriers, we are pilgrims with Jesus in relentlessly searching for others to befriend, know and invite to Christ's Eucharistic table of reconciliation and sacrificial love.
Pentecost blessings, 
The Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes
Bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego
2728 Sixth Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103
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