Religious Leaders Join Together to Push for DREAM Act

By Elizabeth Llorente
Published November 22, 2010

Rep. Luis Gutierrez pushes for the DREAM Act in a Brooklyn church.

Immigrants with documents, and those without, occupy every space in the standing-room only gathering.

Civic and religious leaders wait their turn at the microphone to rally support and optimism for the passage of the DREAM Act, which would pave the way for undocumented students to achieve legal immigration status, expected to come for a vote in Congress in the next few weeks.

The event took place in St. Brigid’s Church in Brooklyn on Sunday, and the setting was no coincidence.

Religious leaders and institutions of all faiths are playing an increasingly high-profile role in the fight for comprehensive immigration reform. They are Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, imams, rabbis – many of them Latino – hoping to influence, in a calming, conciliatory way, the upcoming vote in Congress on the DREAM Act.

They are sending emails and letters to their congregants, urging them to call and write to their congressional representatives and tell them to pass the DREAM Act, which stands for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.

The presence of a pastor – the white collar, the message of love – tempers the defensiveness and tensions that often underlie discussions about illegal immigration, say those working for comprehensive immigration reform.

Religious leaders walk the corridors of the Capitol building, seeking an audience with members of Congress and their staffs to plead the case of undocumented youth, and why those driven to go to college should be given the chance to pay in-state tuition – as unlikely as many are to afford even that. They tell anyone who will listen that undocumented youth should not be punished because of the decisions of their parents.

They speak at immigration rallies around the nation, speaking about legislation that would grant an estimated 1.5 million undocumented children a chance to legalize their status as crucial to the biblical duty to help the most vulnerable, most needy among us.

And political leaders who are trying to gain support for legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants – a notion that is highly controversial across the nation – are welcoming the role of the church and pastors, the power of the pulpit, in helping them in their fight.

“The role of the clergy, of the church, is critical,â€