Immigration reform: Religious voices add to growing momentum

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For the first time in recent history, immigration reform is a priority for the White House and Congress, thanks to politics and demographics – the growing Latino vote fueled Democratic electoral successes in 2012. But faith groups say the issue is more than cold calculus, and they are adding their voices to the debate.

immigration

Evangelical leaders, for example, are pressing for quick bipartisan action on the matter in 2013. Shortly after the November election, they released open letters to President Barack Obama and to congressional leaders laying out moral principles for immigration reform and urging action within the first 92 days of Obama’s second term.

Catholic bishops, longtime advocates for immigrant rights, have also launched a postcard campaign for comprehensive reform.

And mainline Protestants are lobbying, as well. The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is calling attention to recent reports of inhumane treatment at some immigrant detention facilities and encouraging the nation’s leaders to take corrective action.

In the meantime, the White House is using its executive powers to press ahead with immigration changes that don’t require congressional involvement. On the heels of a June 2012 announcement that it would no longer deport young illegal immigrants who have grown up in the U.S., the administration decided in early January 2013 to ease visa requirements for undocumented immigrants who want to stay in the U.S. while seeking permanent residency.

Action is occurring at the state level, too. In December 2012, Colorado became the fourth state to adopt an immigration “compact” that seeks to foster a comprehensive approach to the issue — that is in contrast to the enforcement-only emphasis favored by some states in recent years. When Utah unveiled a similar compact in 2010, religious leaders were among those who participated in a public reading of its principles.

All of this comes against the backdrop of a recent decline in immigration to the U.S. from Mexico as America’s recession tamped down economic incentives for entering the country illegally. But with joblessness now below 8 percent and with hopes for further improvement, the pace of illegal immigration — and calls to address the issue comprehensively — could add more urgency to the debate for all sides.

Other recent developments

This edition of ReligionLink provides background and resources on this evolving issue.

Why it matters

Historically, the United States has been a nation of immigrants. It has also long been seen as a harbor for religious migrants seeking freedom of worship. That is why the Pilgrims first came to America and why immigrants of many other faiths still seek entry. Those immigrants continue to renew or transform American religion. But many argue that wide-open immigration, especially for non-Christians, is changing what is essential about the United States, including the nation’s foundational faith traditions. Consequently, the debate over immigration reform can be seen as a debate about American identity.

Background and resources

By some estimates there are as many as 11 million undocumented or illegal immigrants (the preferred adjective varies) in the United States, and experts say a strict law enforcement approach has not stanched the influx.

Promoting immigration reform and aiding immigrants are priorities for many religious groups, whose leadership has been deeply involved in the political debate. These faith communities often have different reasons for their positions. But for most, the immigration debate centers on shared religious principles of hospitality to the stranger, charity for the needy and justice for the oppressed.

When it comes to immigration, however, those views are not necessarily shared by worshippers in the pews. Americans consistently rank immigration reform as a top priority, but a strong majority of those who follow the issue want that reform to start with a law-and-order approach to illegal immigrants.

A complicating factor today is that many Republicans worry that if they oppose immigration reform now they may suffer politically in the future because of the growing presence and influence of Hispanics.

Meanwhile, some Hispanic leaders say that Obama and the Democrats must deliver on their promises to enact immigration reform if they want to retain Latino support. At the same time, unauthorized immigration is dropping markedly, according to recent research.

Articles, blog posts

References for further research

  • The Pew Center on the States’ Stateline website tracks immigration news at the state level.
  • The White House website has a fact sheet on the DREAM Act laying out the arguments for the legislation.
  • An analysis released Sept. 1, 2010, by the Pew Hispanic Center shows the annual influx of undocumented immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005.
  • Pew also has a map (2011) of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. with state-by-state data.
  • Read a July 21, 2010, discussion among religious leaders on immigration reform, hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations.
  • The Council on Foreign Relations has a web page listing a number of immigration experts and their contact information.
  • The libertarian Cato Institute in 2009 released a study saying that legalizing undocumented workers in the United States would bring an added $180 billion to the U.S. economy during the next decade, while only toughening laws and tightening borders would actually hurt American households economically.
  • Read about a 2009 study on churches’ outreach to first-generation immigrants in North America. LifeWay Research conducted the analysis for the North American Mission Board, the domestic missions agency of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Surveys

Polls show that Americans generally want immigration reform but are concerned about the possible negative effects on immigrant families and on increasing the risks of bias against Hispanics in particular. Those concerns are balanced against a desire for greater border security, which is why there is general support for the Arizona law, for example.

For more sources and background, see ReligionLink’s issues on:

Religion angles on immigration

Since the history of the United States is largely the story of immigration, it is not surprising that the history of nearly every religious community in the United States, from Puritans to Muslims, is also a story of immigration. These are not static stories, either. Religious groups continue to be affected and even transformed by immigration. Mormonism, for example, is considered a “home-grown” American religion, and yet today much of the church’s growth is in the immigrant Latino community. The same holds true for Pentecostalism.

Yet many religious believers are at odds with their leaders on the immigration issue. Experts say economic anxiety — the fear that immigration costs resident Americans more in terms of jobs and higher taxes than it helps the economy — and fears of terrorism trump religious tenets on this issue. With that perspective in mind, here are story angles and sources on the various religious groups with a stake in the immigration debate:

INTERFAITH

Faith organizations such as Interfaith Alliance, Sojourners and the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights work closely with immigration advocacy groups such as the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the National Immigration Forum.

  • Faith in Public Life, another interfaith group, is a social justice lobby that describes itself as “a strategy center advancing faith in the public square as a positive and unifying force for justice, compassion and the common good.” The group’s newsroom has links to news releases and stories about immigration. Jennifer Butler is executive director. Contact through media relations associate Casey Schoeneberger, 202-569-4254, press@faithinpubliclife.org.
  • Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform describes itself as “a coalition of Christian organizations, churches, and leaders from across the theological and political spectrum” that is “working together to see fair and humane immigration reform enacted in Congress this year because we share a set of common moral and theological principles that compel us to love, care for, and seek justice for the stranger among us.” Contact campaign coordinator Ivone Guillen at 202-328-8842 or through the website.
  • The Gamaliel Foundation describes itself as a nonpartisan, faith-based organizing network of 72 affiliates in 26 U.S. states and five provinces of South Africa. The foundation is a leading advocacy group for comprehensive immigration reform. Contact media director Stephen Boykewich, 917-686-2426, stephen@gamaliel.org.
  • The Interfaith Immigration Coalition seeks immigration reform “that reflects our mandate to welcome the stranger and treat all human beings with dignity and respect.” Contact Liza Lieberman, liza.lieberman@hias.org, or Jen Smyers, jsmyers@churchworldservice.org.

CATHOLICS

Among faith groups, the Catholic Church in the United States has always been one of the most vocal and prominent advocates for immigrants. Part of this is due to its size; with more than 65 million Catholics, the church is by far the largest single denomination, and that means the bishops’ views will be given a hearing. But that size is also due to the large and steady influx of Catholics from other countries in the past 200 years. Once it was the Irish and Italians and Eastern Europeans. Today it is immigration from Latin America and Asia that is reinforcing, and transforming, the Catholic Church.

EVANGELICALS

Evangelicals are often, and mistakenly, viewed as a white, politically conservative bloc of loyal Republicans. But the influx of Latino evangelicals is helping to create splits and tensions among evangelicals in the United States.

MAINLINE PROTESTANTS

Leaders of the mainline Protestant churches and related organizations have generally supported immigration reform, on scriptural and other grounds. These denominations are trying, with varying degrees of success, to attract ethnic and racial minorities to their predominantly white churches. Their support for immigrants is also in keeping with their moderate to liberal political stances.

  • The Rev. John Fife retired in 2005 after serving 30 years as pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson. Fife works with humanitarian programs, including Humane Borders, that provide food, water and medical care for migrants crossing the Arizona desert. Contact 520-882-4879, jfife666@aol.com.
  • Linda Hartke is president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, an organization that serves both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It helps resettle refugees, protect unaccompanied refugee children, advocate for the just treatment of asylum seekers and seek alternatives to detention for those incarcerated during immigration proceedings.  Contact in Baltimore at 410-230-2700, president@lirs.org.
  • Ricardo Hernandez works on immigrant and refugee rights for the American Friends Service Committee. Contact 215-241-7132.
  • Bill Mefford is director of civil and human rights at the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society. Contact 202-488-5657, bmefford@umc-gbcs.org.
  • Deborah Stein is director of Episcopal Migration Ministries. Contact 212-716-6258.
  • Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, an ecumenical alliance working to bring churches’ social witness in line with “biblical and historic Christian teachings.” The organization, which is based in Washington, D.C., has been critical of mainline church agencies and those on the religious left for their position on immigration reform. Contact 202-682-4131, media@theird.org.
  • Rick Ufford-Chase is executive director of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. He is a founder of BorderLinks, a not-for-profit, faith-based group that offers travel seminars – a firsthand “immersion experience” – for people wanting to understand U.S.-Mexico border issues. Contact 520-882-8190, rickuffordchase@gmail.com.

MORMONS

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 10, 2011, issued a statement saying that immigration reform was a job for the federal government and that the Mormon leadership “is concerned that any state legislation that only contains enforcement provisions is likely to fall short of the high moral standard of treating each other as children of God.”

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES

African-American denominations have generally not been outspoken leaders about immigration reform. This reflects a deep concern within the African-American community that immigrants, who tend to migrate to urban centers where African-Americans are concentrated, will hurt blacks on the lower end of the economic ladder because they will accept lower wages, even less than the minimum wage at times.

  • See an Oct. 3, 2012, video and story at TheHill.com about an ad that appears to pit African-Americans against immigrants.
  • Read a March 21, 2010, Huffington Post column on whether the black church supports immigration reform.
  • Read a June 13, 2007, New York Times story, “Village Takes a More Hospitable Approach to Day Laborers,” about an African-American congregation in Mamaroneck, N.Y., that serves as an official hiring site for largely Hispanic day laborers. One expert says very few of the nation’s hiring sites are associated with African-American churches.
  • Listen to an April 3, 2006, Talk of the Nation program on National Public Radio about the contentious issues of African-Americans, immigration and social justice.
  • David W. Wills is a professor of American history and American studies specializing in religion and black studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Wills is author of the chapter “Exodus Piety: African American Religion in an Age of Immigration” in the book Minority Faiths and the American Protestant Mainstream. Contact 413-542-2470, dwwills@amherst.edu.

JEWISH GROUPS

American Jews have traditionally taken a strong stand on behalf of immigrants and refugees because of Judaism’s teachings on the issue and because of the lifeline that immigration – especially to America – has provided for persecuted Jews. Also, Jewish immigrants often faced the same prejudices and difficulties that today’s immigrants face.

  • Read a Jan. 27, 2010, story in The Forward, “Immigration Debate Prompts Growing Jewish-Latino Ties.”
  • Gideon Aronoff is a former president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which supports immigration reform because of Jewish religious and ethical principles. Aronoff has said that some of the same arguments used against Latino immigrants today have historically been used against Jews. Mark Hetfield is interim president and CEO. Contact 202-828-5115.
  • Ira Mehlman is media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform and is co-founder of the American Jewish Immigration Policy Institute. Unlike most Jewish leaders, Mehlman advocates for changes in immigration law that would reduce the number of immigrants allowed to enter this country. He contends that Jews could face increased anti-Semitism if more immigrants are allowed into the U.S. Contact 206-420-7733, imehlman@fairus.org.

MUSLIMS

The nation’s Islamic community has been at the center of the immigration debate, though not always for the best reasons. Immigration fears spiked after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and amid the subsequent war in Iraq and escalating concerns over terror attacks by radical Muslims who might be allowed into the country. Islamic groups have generally supported immigration reform as a way to protect the rights of Muslims and to ensure that they receive equal treatment. Immigrants are also a leading source of new congregants for American mosques. Opponents of immigration often cite concerns about terrorism in order to thwart reforms. Experts say that has made many Muslims and Islamic groups wary of speaking out on behalf of reform legislation.

ASIAN AND EASTERN RELIGIONS

Nothing illustrates the potential impact of immigration reform more clearly than the 1965 major immigration overhaul. In 1965, Congress abolished the quotas that had favored Europeans and for much of the century greatly limited immigration from Asia. The subsequent influx of Asians, who brought the pluriform religious traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, along with Sikhism and other faiths, helped recast American spirituality. Many ethnic and religious leaders from these countries worry that immigration reform will start to close the door on their co-nationals, many of whom are also Muslim. The conundrum for some politicians is that many of the highly skilled workers that the United States needs also come from these Asian countries and are members of these religious communities.

National sources

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Regional sources
  • Gregory Chen is director of advocacy with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which argues for “comprehensive reform that will make immigration safe, orderly, legal and controlled.” Contact 202-507-7600, advocacy@aila.org.
  • Ernie Cortes Jr., the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award, is on the executive team of the Industrial Areas Foundation, which engages in community organizing to encourage social change. He is widely known for developing leadership among Latino immigrant communities. Contact ecortes@industrialareasfoundation.org.
  • Josh DeWind is program director of the Migration Program of the Social Science Research Council in New York City. He was a founding member of the Center for Immigrants Rights, National Coalition for Haitian Rights and National Immigration Forum. Contact 718-517-3657, dewind@ssrc.org.
  • Diana L. Eck is a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard Divinity School. She specializes in religious pluralism in a multireligious society and since 1991 has headed the Pluralism Project. She is the author of A New Religious America: How A “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. Contact 617-493-1600, or a departmental assistant at 617-495-5781, or dianaeck@fas.harvard.edu.
  • Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo is a sociology professor at the University of Southern California and an expert on issues of illegal immigration and the illegal-immigrant rights movement in the United States. Contact 213-740-3606 or 213-740-3533, sotelo@usc.edu.
  • Karen Isaksen Leonard is an anthropology professor at the University of California, Irvine, and editor of the book Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America. Contact 949-824-7602, kbleonar@uci.edu.
  • Peggy Levitt is a professor of sociology at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., and author of God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape. She is also a research fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She is the author of The Transnational Villagers and a co-editor of The Changing Face of Home. Contact 781-283-2186, plevitt@wellesley.edu.
  • Ian F. Haney López is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. An expert on race relations and law, he wrote the book Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice. Contact 510-643-2669, ihaneylopez@law.berkeley.edu.
  • Janet Murguía is president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. Contact her in the Washington, D.C., office, 202-785-1670. La Raza also has regional offices.
  • Jeffrey S. Passel is senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, which has conducted research on Latino immigration patterns and Hispanic attitudes toward immigration policy. Contact 202-419-3606, info@pewhispanic.org.
  • Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. He wrote American Judaism: A History, winner of the Jewish Book Council’s Jewish Book of the Year Award in 2004. Contact 781-736-2977, sarna@brandeis.edu.
  • Manuel A. Vásquez is a professor of religion at the University of Florida and an expert on immigration, especially Latino immigration. He was an editor of the volume Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America. Contact 352-392-1625, mvasquez@religion.ufl.edu.
  • Fenggang Yang is a professor of sociology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and an expert in Asian immigration and Eastern religions. Contact 765-494-2641, fyang@purdue.edu.

THINK TANKS AND UNIVERSITY CENTERS

  • The Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston previously had a Religion and Migration Project. One of the project’s leaders was sociology professor Helen Rose Ebaugh, whose research interests include religion and new immigrants. Contact 713-743-3952, ebaugh@uh.edu.
  • The Center for Immigration Studies is a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C. Many of its researchers have concluded that current high levels of immigration are harming the country. The organization says it’s not anti-immigrant, however; instead, it favors a policy of fewer immigrants but a “warmer welcome for those who are admitted.” Mark Krikorian is executive director. Contact 202-466-8185.
  • The Center for Religion & Civic Culture at the University of Southern California has a principal focus on the study of religion and immigration and its various manifestations. The executive director of the center is Donald E. Miller, Firestone Professor of Religion at USC. Contact 213-740-0278, demiller@usc.edu.
  • The Immigration & Ethnicity Institute at Florida International University has studied issues of religion and immigration. The institute is headed by Alex Stepick, a professor of anthropology and sociology at FIU. Contact 305-348-2247, stepick@fiu.edu.
  • The Immigration History Research Center is based at the University of Minnesota. It is an interdisciplinary research center that brings together a variety of scholars. Erika Lee, who holds the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History at the university, is executive director. Contact 612-624-9569, erikalee@umn.edu.
  • The International Center for Migration, Ethnicity and Citizenship is at the New School University in New York City. Alexandra Delano is coordinator. Contact 212-229-5399, icmec@newschool.edu.
  • The Migration Program of the Social Science Research Council in New York City studies the interrelationship of migration and religion. Josh DeWind is director. Contact 718-517-3657, dewind@ssrc.org.
  • The Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan is a leading resource for information about demographic trends in the United States. The center has access to dozens of scholars and experts.

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

  • George J. Borjas is the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. An immigrant from Cuba, he is the author of Heaven’s Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy and supports restrictions on immigration. Contact 617-495-1393, gborjas@harvard.edu.
  • Thomas W. Ogletree is professor emeritus of theological ethics at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Conn. He wrote a 1998 article, “Recreating America: The Ethics of US Immigration Policy in a Christian Perspective,” for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Contact 203-432-5337, thomas.ogletree@yale.edu.

IN THE EAST

  • Jennifer Johnson is a senior associate specializing in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region with the Latin America Working Group, based in Washington, D.C. That nonprofit coalition — including religious groups ranging from Jews to Quakers to Unitarians to Mennonites — encourages the U.S. to develop policies toward Latin America that promote human rights, justice and peace. Contact 202-546-7010, jjohnson@lawg.org.
  • Douglas S. Massey is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. He also is co-director of the Mexican Migration Project, which compiles a year-by-year history of Mexican migration to the United States based on interviews with migrants. He wrote a paper on U.S.-Mexican border policy published in September 2005 by the Immigration Policy Center of the American Immigration Law Foundation, in which he argues that “punitive immigration and border policies tend to backfire.” He is co-author of Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration. Contact 609-258-4949, dmassey@princeton.edu.
  • Mark J. Miller, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware, is senior consulting editor of the International Migration Review. That quarterly review is published by the Center for Migration Studies in New York, which studies human migration and refugee movements. Contact 302-831-1926, mjmiller@udel.edu.
  • Joseph Nevins is an associate professor of geography at Vassar College. He is the author of Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the “Illegal Alien” and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary. Nevins wrote in the Christian Science Monitor in August 2005 that at least 3,000 migrants had died crossing the Arizona desert in the previous decade – and that the deaths would continue unless immigration policy changed. Contact 845-437-7823, jonevins@vassar.edu.
  • James Russell is spokesman for Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy and the author of Breach of Faith: American Churches and the Immigration Crisis, which decries “out-of-control immigration” and examines “why American churches do so much to further an agenda so obviously harmful to the well being of Middle Americans.” He is based in White Plains, N.Y. Contact 914-747-7355, jim@jrussell.com.

IN THE SOUTHEAST

  • Raleigh Bailey is director of the Center for New North Carolinians. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro created the center in 2001 to deal with immigrant issues, in a state that saw a 400 percent increase in Hispanic population between 1990 and 2000. Contact 336-501-7981, raleighbailey@gmail.com.
  • Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste is a professor in the modern and classical languages department at Georgia State University and director of the university’s Center for Latin American and Latino/a Studies. Contact 404-413-6593, Fernandez@gsu.edu.
  • Jacqueline Hagan is a sociology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include religion and migration between Latin America and the U.S. She is the author of Migration Miracle: Faith, Hope and Meaning on the Undocumented Journey. Contact 919-962-2327, jhagan@unc.edu.

IN THE SOUTH

  • David Coffey was director of educational enhancement programs at Western Kentucky University. He has studied the impact of Latino immigration on Kentucky’s economy – the number of Hispanics in the area has tripled, he says – and has taught Spanish to Kentucky farmers and English to recent immigrants who work in restaurants, in the fields and roofing houses. Contact 270-745-3151 or 270-781-2426, david.coffey@wku.edu.
  • Russell D. Moore is dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He wrote a June 20, 2011, column in The Christian Post, “Immigration and the Gospel,” that calls on evangelicals to be welcoming to immigrants. Contact rmoore@sbts.edu.
  • Hernan Prado is founder and president of the Alabama Latin American Association. Since 1990, according to a 2004 series in the Birmingham Post-Herald, Alabama has seen an explosion in its Hispanic population, and a report released in July 2005 by the Pew Hispanic Center found that the Hispanic population is growing faster in the South than anywhere else in the U.S. Contact 205-951-0255, hprado@alasweb.org.

IN THE MIDWEST

  • Oscar Chacón is executive director of the Chicago-based National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities. Contact 877-683-2908, ochacon@nalacc.org.
  • The Rev. Daniel Groody is an associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and director of the Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture at the university’s Institute for Latino Studies. He helped produce a documentary film called Dying to Live: A Migrant’s Journey and has spent time along the U.S.-Mexico border interviewing migrants about their spiritual lives. He wrote the book Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart and Spirit. Contact 574-631-3233, dgroody@nd.edu.
  • Edwin I. Hernández is director of the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind. The center conducts social-scientific studies of the U.S. Latino church, its leadership and the interaction between religion and community. Contact 574-631-4440 or 574-631-8558, Edwin.I.Hernandez.77@nd.edu.
  • Joshua Hoyt is chief strategy executive and former director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which supports comprehensive immigration reform, including family reunification and a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. Its 120 members include Muslim, Christian, Jewish and interfaith organizations. Contact 312-344-2216, jhoyt@icirr.org.
  • Timothy Miller is a historian of American religion in the religious studies department at the University of Kansas. His expertise is in new and alternative religions, and he has written about the impact of the influx of Eastern spirituality after the 1965 immigration reform act. Contact 785-864-7263, tkansas@ku.edu.
  • Rich Nathan is senior pastor of Vineyard Church of Columbus in Westerville, Ohio, a congregation of 10,000 that includes members who came from 75 different countries. He has said he’s seen how the immigration system can separate families or prevent them from visiting sick or dying relatives. Contact 614-259-5313, rich.nathan@vineyardcolumbus.org.
  • Luis Alberto Urrea, a poet, essayist and native of Tijuana, was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for his book The Devil’s Highway: A True Story. The book chronicles the attempt 26 Mexican men made in May 2001 to cross the desert into southern Arizona. Only 12 survived. Urrea also is a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Contact luis@luisurrea.com or through Elizabeth Garriga at Little, Brown, 212-364-1292, elizabeth.garriga@hbgusa.com.

IN THE SOUTHWEST

  • Helen Rose Ebaugh is a sociology professor at the University of Houston. Her research interests include religion and new immigrants. Contact 713-743-3952, Ebaugh@uh.edu.
  • Ruben Martinez, an associate professor in the creative writing program at the University of Houston, is the son of immigrants; his father is from Mexico, and his mother from El Salvador. He is the author of The New Americans, which tells the stories of seven immigrant families and is the companion book to a PBS series on immigration from 2003. He’s also the author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. Contact 713-743-2964, ruben62@aol.com.
  • No More Deaths is a Tucson-based coalition of individuals, congregations and human rights advocates formed in response to the deaths of migrants crossing the desert in southern Arizona. No More Deaths volunteers help staff water and medical-assistance stations in the Sonoran desert and patrol the desert to search for migrants in distress. Contact 520-240-1641, media@nomoredeaths.org.
  • The Rev. Harold Recinos is professor of church and society at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He has worked with immigrants in the United States and abroad and studies issues related to immigrants and refugees in the United States. Contact 214-768-1773, hrecinos@smu.edu.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

  • Wayne Cornelius is professor emeritus of political science and U.S.-Mexican relations at the University of California at San Diego. He also is director emeritus of the university’s Center for Comparative Immigration Studies and is co-editor of Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective. Contact 858-822-4447, wcorneli@ucsd.edu.
  • Ben Daniel is pastor of Foothill Presbyterian Church in San Jose, Calif., which has a long tradition of working with the Presbyterian Border Ministry. He is the author of Neighbor: Christian Encounters With “Illegal” Immigration (2010). Contact 408-258-8133, pastor@foothillpc.org.
  • Moises Escalante is health and benefits access education coordinator for the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights. That statewide coalition, based in San Francisco, advocates for humane immigration laws. Contact 213-480-8800, moises_icir@yahoo.com.
  • Gaston Espinosa, associate professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College in California, specializes in Latino religion, politics and immigration. Contact gaston.espinosa@claremontmckenna.edu.
  • Bryan Fischer of Idaho is director of issue analysis for government and public policy at the American Family Association, which strives “to reform our culture to reflect Biblical truth on which it was founded.” He has suggested that no more Muslims should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. Contact through Cindy Roberts, 662-844-5036 ext. 227, or email through the website.
  • Victor Davis Hanson is a fifth-generation Californian, a farmer, a classicist and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He wrote the book Mexifornia: A State of Becoming, in which he argues that California is being transformed by illegal immigration from Mexico. Contact preferred by email only at author@victorhanson.com or jheyne@victorhanson.com.
  • Uriel Iñiguez is executive director of the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs. Contact 800-443-0294 or 360-725-5661, Hispanic@cha.wa.gov.
  • U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador is a Republican congressman from Idaho, a native of Puerto Rico and a Mormon. An ABC News/Univision report describes him as committed to immigration reform but not supportive of a path to citizenship for those here illegally. Contact 202-225-6611.
  • Daniel J. Tichenor is a political science professor at the University of Oregon. He is the author of Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America and the forthcoming Faustian Bargains: The Origins and Development of America’s Illegal Immigration Dilemma. Contact 541-346-4707, tichenor@uoregon.edu.
  • The Rev. James A. Tolle is the former senior pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif., a congregation that includes many immigrants. Tolle has been active on the reform issue, including testifying before a Senate subcommittee, and is now pastor of The Church on the Way’s Spanish-speaking congregation, La Iglesia en el Camino. Contact 818-779-8400.

 

 

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