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State's Jewish leaders aim for 'balance' in debate over immigration reform

By Doug Chandler


Members of the Jewish Community Relations Council in the New Haven area have decided to "explore and discuss" the future of U.S. immigration policy, a heated topic in recent months, and to meet with others in the state "who have a stake in the issue," said Lauri Lowell, the council's director.

Formulating a stand on the issue "is going to be a process," said Lowell, whose agency is an arm of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. "The issue is complicated, controversial, and the last thing we want to do is take a position based on a superficial analysis."

But some of the parameters of that stand may be in place already, reflecting what appears to be a consensus among members of the state's Jewish community.

"The Jewish community has an interest in making sure our immigration policy is open and welcoming," Lowell said. The community wants to see secure borders for the country but doesn't want to see those borders locked down - two goals that Lowell believes "are not irreconcilable."

Indeed, recent interviews with more than a half-dozen religious, communal and political leaders suggested that most of the state's Jewish community would favor tightening the nation's southern border and offering a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. President Bush and the U.S. Senate have endorsed just such an approach, while the House of Representatives has passed legislation that would create a hard-line, law-enforcement-only policy.

The outcome of the debate will affect an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in this country, most of them from Mexico - an increase of 240 percent from 1990, when the figure stood at 3.5 million.

In Connecticut, figures from the Pew Hispanic Center placed the number of illegal immigrants at 80,000 in 2004, a 300 percent rise from the estimated 20,000 in 1990. Roughly one of every 10 residents, legal and illegal, is foreign born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a statistic that matches figures for the entire country.

Tension in Danbury

Those numbers have sparked tensions in some parts of the state, especially those where day laborers gather on the street, waiting for employment, or live in overcrowded homes. One example is Danbury, where the mayor once called for deputizing state police to enforce federal immigration laws, a request denied by the state.

The mix also includes the creation last year of Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, a group that has called immigration from Mexico an "invasion," and a heightened political awareness on the part of many immigrants.

These are some of the factors that may be considered by the New Haven JCRC, which has already hosted one meeting on the issue and is planning another late this summer.

The agency is alone among the state's JCRCs in considering the topic, but it appears to be in step with national organizations like the American Jewish Committee, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. All three groups favor what they call "comprehensive immigration reform," balancing security and humanitarian concerns.

In addition, while most local organizations haven't discussed the issue, reserving their agenda for other matters, the topic has evoked a passionate response from individual members of the Jewish community.

Drawing from the words of a Jewish poet, Rabbi Herbert N. Brockman of Congregation Mishkan Israel, a Reform synagogue in Hamden, said the debate concerned him "because I, like Emma Lazarus, believe in, 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses'" - language inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

Brockman said he shudders at the debate's tone, regarding much of it as "mean-spirited" and "anathema" to the country's ideals.

Caryl Kligfeld, director of refugee services at the New Haven Jewish Federation and a vice president of HIAS, said a restrictive immigration policy would not only hurt the United States, for which newcomers are the "lifeblood," but could also hurt the Jewish community.

"We don't necessarily know where the next crisis will erupt" or from which country "the next group of distressed Jews will seek entry," she said. She noted that Iran still has a large Jewish population, a large percentage of which may be feeling uneasy.

Such views are likely to resonate with state Rep. Andy Fleischmann (D-West Hartford), who discussed his feelings while making clear that immigration policy is a federal matter that can only be solved on a federal level.

"Connecticut is no different from the rest of the country," said Fleischmann, a participant in last April's pro-immigration rally on the Capital steps. "We have some people on the far right who would take people who've been here for years and brand them as criminals," and others who would choose "a more balanced approach."

The trick, though, is in weighing just where that balance lies.

On the other side of the aisle, state Rep. Donald Sherer (R-Stamford) is concerned about the large number of illegal immigrants he believes are working in the trades without following the law. Craftsmen who register their business, charge sales tax and are bonded or insured are playing by the rules. But "typically," he said, "it's the illegal aliens who aren't playing by the rules, and, typically, it's hurting those craftsmen" who are playing fair.

"I'm not against illegal aliens, per se," said Sherer, whose father came to this country from Palestine. But something needs to be done on a federal level to control immigration, he added, while state lawmakers can address issues like the competitive aspects of business.

In Danbury, Rabbi Clifford E. Librach of the United Jewish Center sounded much the same theme, saying that entering this country illegally and ignoring its rules are both wrong. He also defended the city's mayor, Mark Boughton, who he called "anti-illegal immigrant," not anti-immigrant.

But Librach has also written an opinion piece for the synagogue's newsletter endorsing the president's approach to immigration reform - one he favors "because all Jews are immigrants, America is a country of immigrants, and it's important for America to continue to welcome immigrants."

"In Jewish terms, we have the chesed, the lovingkindness, and the givulim, the boundaries," said Rabbi Vivian Mayer, the spiritual leader of Congregation B'nai Israel in Danbury. The tension between the two is apparent in this debate, Mayer added, but she believes that most Jews lean toward chesed in this case - welcoming new people and helping them.