Immigration

Texas megachurch pastor Joel Osteen has spoken out on the Alabama state law that makes it a crime for pastors to provide church shelter for illegal immigrants, as residents protest against a new provision to the bill that may force courts to disclose information on undocumented aliens.

"I'm not up to speed on it all, but I think in general you know the Bible tells us to help one another and to help those in need so you know, I think it's a tough position to not be able to welcome people to our churches. You know we don't necessarily know who they are," said Pastor Osteen said in an interview earlier this week with WIAT-TV, while he was visiting Birmingham.

In 2011, Alabama Christian leaders stood up against state officials seeking to enact the "nation's most merciless" anti-immigration law which puts pastors in danger of facing criminal charges for transporting, concealing, harboring or shield an illegal immigrant. The Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act takes aim at people without proper alien registration living in the state. more >>

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last week that seeks to end the practice of illegal immigrants getting child tax credit refunds. Attention was brought to the issue after an investigative report by a local television news station went viral on the Internet.

Illegal immigrants are fraudulently taking advantage of the federal income tax's child tax credit to the tune of $4.2 billion per year, reported Bob Segall of WTHR, an NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, Ind., on April 26. Since even those who do not pay takes can receive the credit, illegal immigrants have found that they are able to receive $1,000 per child from the federal government by filing taxes.

In some cases, though, the fraud goes even further. Segall found cases in which undocumented immigrants were taking the tax credit for nieces and nephews for whom they are not legal guardians and do not live in the United States. Some received more than $10,000 from the federal government. more >>

Correction Appended

A coalition of groups from the religious left held a prayer vigil and "Jericho march" at the Supreme Court this week. The court was hearing arguments in a case on the constitutionality of an Arizona immigration law.

The 48-hour prayer vigil began Monday and ended Wednesday morning, the day of the court hearings, with a "Jericho march" around the Supreme Court building. Over 1,000 people were reportedly participating in the march, which was named after the Battle of Jericho from the book of Joshua in which God brought victory to the Israelites after they marched around Jericho and the city walls fell down. more >>

The number of Mexican immigrants entering the United States over the five year period between 2005 and 2010 is equal to the number leaving the country and returning home, an analysis by Pew Hispanic Center reported.

The study shows that in the five year period about 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States and about 1.4 million Mexican immigrants and their U.S.-born children moved back to Mexico.

The figures stand in contrast with the period between 1995 and 2000, when nearly 3 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States, compared with only 700,000 who returned home from the U.S. more >>

On April 21st of this year, I will be participating in a panel discussion on Immigration at The Awakening, an event sponsored by the Freedom Federation and Liberty Counsel in Orlando Florida. The panel is titled: Immigration: The Challenge to Get it Right. As I start to think about what I want to discuss during this panel, I am torn between what I consider to be the more obvious choice – immigration policy; versus a more difficult, and perhaps more politically germane choice – the effect of our immigration policies on our nation's racial compass. Of course, our nation's racial compass cannot be separated from our nation's moral compass. It is the nexus between the elements of morality and racial equality in our society, which in my opinion needs to be publicly addressed.

Considering that this discussion will take place in Orlando, this issue becomes particularly acute in the wake of the whole Trayvon Martin controversy that is gripping our nation today. It seems that despite that fact that we have elected our first President of color, we have not, as a nation, evolved beyond this difficult issue of racial tension in America. This has not been an easy evolution. The President has recently stated that our nation must "reflect" on this issue. In that he is correct, but I cannot help but wish that as President, he would have chosen to lead on this issue. It would seem that this President has been ideally suited to be a leader on the issue of racial equality. But alas, the President has not truly taken that lead as forcefully as I would have wished.

The issue of racial relations in America seems to always be boiling just below the surface of our national psyche, and naturally bubbles to the surface whenever a challenge to our values on this issue presents itself. These issues challenge us from both poles of our political spectrum; for example from the right when we talk about the harsh state immigration laws in Alabama or Arizona, and from the left, when we saw in 2008 that 90% of black Democratic primary voters voted for the black candidate, while 90% of female Democratic primary voters voted for the female candidate. It seems that when confronted with difficult choices, our nation tends to lean in the more comfortable direction of segregation instead of the more challenging direction of integration. We tend to look toward the interests of our own "tribe," instead of the greater interest of our national society. I think that we have to evolve beyond these narrow and selfish interests, to emerge through this evolution as a truly post racial America. more >>

The Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill that would require authorities to crack down on illegal immigration, in keeping with a trend in the South and the West to enact such measures.

The Republican-dominated House voted 70-47 to pass the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhood Act," which requires police to check the immigration status of people who are arrested, and prohibits undocumented residents to renew a driver's license or get a business license, CNN reported Friday.

The bill is likely to be approved also in the state Senate, which too has a majority of Republicans. It was passed after the removal of a clause that provided for police to also check the immigration status of people involved in traffic violations, as well as students at public schools. more >>