Immigration reform. . .now

I like what Jim Wallis writes in the latest on-line edition of Sojourners.  Lend him your attention for a few moments.  Then consider what you could do to join the movement to bring comprehensive reform to our immigration situation.

Pray Immigration Reform Into Passage

On Sunday, a major march for immigration reform will take place in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousands of people will gather to call on the White House to lead, and put forward an immigration reform bill whose time has come. We will march and we will pray. And the following morning, a high-level delegation of religious leaders will meet with key White House officials to press the same message. There are both Democrats and Republicans who in the past have said they supported comprehensive immigration reform, and so there ought now to be bipartisan support for such a bill. But in the ultra-partisan and poisoned atmosphere of the U.S. Congress now, bipartisan spirit has fled the halls of power. In Washington, politics is now just a game of win and lose, and it’s only about the next election; the process of politics in the nation’s capital is no longer about solving problems. But the problem is that there are children and families in the balance, and the politicians are now playing politics with the lives of vulnerable people. Those people are our brothers and sisters, they are our parishioners, and they are children of God. And the faith community has come together to say the time for politics over compassion is over.

The number of deportations in this administration’s first year is higher than previous years, meaning more broken lives, more families torn apart. That is not what we meant by change. Read the entire essay here.

[I know he has been busy on the economy, health care reform and other important matters, but possibly one thing you and I can do is write President Obama and challenge him to deliver on his campaign promise to bring forward a plan for comprehensive immigration reform ASAP.  LJ]