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“If they’re not here legally, they shouldn’t be here.”
Area clergy torn on people who aid illegal aliens

By William Kibler

bkibler@altoonamirror.com

Clergy in Altoona are conflicted about the morality of a proposed ordinance City Council is considering to punish people who aid and abet illegal aliens.

“I would be 100 percent in favor,” said Pastor Fred Romig of First Evangelical Lutheran Church.

“They’re breaking the law,” he said of aliens that would be targeted here to prevent problems they allegedly cause in Hazleton with crime, failing schools and strain on healthcare. Why should Altoona let landlords and employers be an accessory?

Yet he conceded uncertainty about a proposed ordinance that would punish businesses that hire illegals and landlords who house them.

“We have a call to reach out to the downtrodden,” Romig said. “To send them back is almost as criminal as their coming here.”

It’s hard to argue in favor of accepting illegal aliens because their presence here is a crime.

“Illegal aliens are just that,” said Rev. Paul Johnson, pastor of 18th Street Community Church and among the few who are unambivalent. “If they’re not here legally, they shouldn’t be here.”

Moreover, they take jobs otherwise available to citizens like those who come to him for help after serving time in jail — paying their price for what they did wrong, he said.

Yet it’s also hard to dismiss scriptural calls to welcome strangers, help those in need and support those at a disadvantage, clergy members said.

Jews were strangers in a strange land as slaves in Egypt, said Bill Wallen, executive director of the Greater Altoona Jewish Federation.

“Jesus spoke out and acted on behalf of the underdog,” said Pastor Christina Jillard of St. Luke’s Episcopal.

History can change a society’s perspective on treatment of “illegals,” Wallen said. Escaped slaves got help in the North before the Civil War, and now we see that as a good thing.

The United States rejected a shipload of Jewish refugees from Germany, so as not to offend Adolf Hitler, and now we see that as a bad thing.

Residents may look back on our treatment of illegal immigrants as some members of her congregation recall the experience of their Irish ancestors, Jillard said.

“They were treated with great prejudice,” she said.

It has been a pattern in the United States: Fear and hostility that a new group will change a person’s way of life, she said.

Like Johnson, the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese also is unambivalent, but on the other side.

“It’s something we just can’t get behind,” spokesman Rob Egan said of the ordinance proposal. “We would urge [the council] to reconsider.”

The church teaches that we must “help all others regardless of their situations — including immigration status, ethnicity and country of origin,” Egan said.

The Hazleton law seems “punitive,” bordering on discrimination, especially with its requirement that all routine government business be conducted in English, he said.

Such a law would have complicated the lives of many of our ancestors a century ago, Egan said.

Yet requiring people to enter the country legally is in keeping with our sense of law and order, said Pastor Bryan Shumate of Altoona First Church of the Brethren.

“You can’t go around doing something illegal and expect to be blessed for it,” he said, referring to amnesty proposals for illegal aliens.

And local government has the responsibility to protect the community and uphold its economy, Wallen said.

It’s also understandable that cities like Hazleton and Altoona feel threatened when they see people who seem to bring drugs, crime and poverty with them, he said.

Moreover, there are legal ways to immigrate, Johnson said.

Romig’s son-in-law is a legal alien, who came here as a student and now works, pays taxes and fulfills his reporting requirements, Romig said.

But the law limits the numbers, as there have been quotas during the years.

Mohammad Dowlut, president of the Islamic Center of Altoona, thinks the city is overreaching with its ordinance proposal.

It’s beyond the scope of a landlord’s responsibility to document the immigrant status of housing applicants, he said.

Conversely, it’s redundant to legislate against employers for hiring illegals because the laws already do it, he said.

Altoona First Baptist Church Pastor Charles Kiloski thinks an ordinance is unnecessary because Altoona doesn’t have an illegal alien problem.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.