AZ-Is enforcing the new immigration law a sin?
Is enforcing the new immigration law a sin?
Posted: Apr 28, 2010 8:21 PM CDT
Craig Smith
TUCSON, AZ (KGUN9-TV) Is enforcing the new immigration law a sin?
Some religious leaders think so.
They say they'll do what they can to resist the law.
Rev. Alison Harrington, the pastor at Southside Presbyterian Church told a large crowd Wednesday, "It is immoral, unethical and unjust; and as faith leaders we are called to struggle against sin, to call our leaders into repentance and to call our community into action."
Religious leaders gathered at Southside Presbyterian Church to promise to resist the new immigration law.
Part of the law forbids knowingly transporting an illegal immigrant. Here's what the pastor at Sahuarita's Good Shepherd Church of Christ plans to do about that.
"As we continue to urge all people to come to church to worship, yes that means we will be giving people rides to worship like we always have"
The new law also forbids picking up day laborers on a public street.
The faith leaders plan to fight the law by creating day labor pick up points on church and temple property.
Some Tucson area churches, Southside Presbyterian in particular, have a history of activism.
In the 1980's now retired pastor John Fife was convicted of violating federal immigration law for harboring refugees from the civil war in El Salvador. He served five years on probation.
Now, churches and temples will ask law enforcement not to come on their grounds looking for immigrants.
KGUN's Craig Smith asked Rev. Fife: "Could you end up housing people on parish grounds indefinitely and effectively dare law enforcement to come get them?
Rev. Fife: We'll see. What you see today is the beginning of faith leaders in this community carefully considering what they must do in order to resist."
And some of the leaders say they're willing to risk their own arrest to fight a law they find unjust
http://www.kgun9.com/Global/story.asp?S=12394178
