Church envoy studies immigration

Denomination sends lawyer to Hazleton at presbytery's request.
By Chris Parker

Of The Morning Call

November 13, 2007

Julia A. Thorne, an immigration lawyer for the national Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), strolled down Wyoming Street on Friday, peeking in on small grocery stores with specials printed on the windows, an income tax preparer who listed his services and a tiny restaurant that displayed its name -- all in Spanish.

Thorne, whose denomination is based in Louisville, Ky., and represents 2.3 million members in more than 10,000 congregations nationwide, was visiting to learn as much as she could about immigrants in Hazleton -- the epicenter of a storm of controversy whipped up by its 2006 law against renting to illegal immigrants or hiring them.

The law, proposed by Mayor Lou Barletta, who won re-election by a wide margin last week, has since been struck down by a federal judge as unconstitutional.

''I'm interested to see how has immigration really hurt this place,'' she said. ''What the town is saying is that immigration has been the bane of their existence, that this is a horrible thing that is happening. OK, show me the hurt. What's wrong? What's going on here that is so terrible?''

Thorne -- who said she made the visit at the request of the church's Lehigh Presbytery, the ruling body that covers 35 churches with 11,398 members in Lehigh, Schuylkill, Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton and Berks

Copyright © 2007, The Morning Call


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