CREEDE HINSHAW: Immigration fear a stain on country

I am depressed by the stories that run almost daily about how officials in our nation are cracking down with severity on our nation’s immigrants. Here we are, the richest nation the world has ever known, preparing so send as many as 60,000 Hondurans back to their homes because … because why? There is no good justification for this.

Recently a couple who went to be married in the chambers of a Pennsylvania state court judge were instead rudely introduced to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials when the judge became concerned that the groom was here illegally. Instead of a happy wedding ceremony the groom was fingerprinted and threatened with deportation back to Central America because he had forgotten to bring his legal papers. Only after producing documents showing he was here legally did the judge conduct what must have been a traumatic ceremony. Though the judge was fulfilling her constitutional role, stories such as this produce deep anxiety and mistrust for so many Americans, here legally or otherwise.

This week Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vowed that when families enter our country without documentation their children will immediately be separated from their parents. Even those who most want closed borders must acknowledge the severity of such a strong-arm threat. This anti-immigrant stance is nothing new in our nation. We have endured many seasons of fear of the stranger. Quite by coincidence I learned of a nativist group earlier this week once called the Immigration Restriction League, founded in the late 1800s by a group of Harvard alumni. These people feared that foreigners were diluting the white race. One of their arguments was that immigrants “… lower the mental, moral and physical average of our people.” What a shameful, exclusivist prejudice.

Last Sunday night I marched with an interfaith group here in Macon promoting a more generous, welcoming policy of immigration in our nation. More than 100 Jews, Muslims and Christians walked down one of the city’s main streets in solidarity with those who often have little or no voice in affairs that directly affect them. One might ask what is the good of such a march. No offering was taken nor were the marchers asked to sign on any dotted line to volunteer their time to this cause. But there was prayer, both before and after the march, and when prayers are offered in the same room by Muslim, Christian and Jew I believe powerful things can happen. We sat around tables together, told stories about our own family’s immigration (if we knew them), ate together and went home energized to continue to advocate for the weak and powerless.

Every major faith tradition urges its followers to stand with the stranger, the exile, the homeless and vulnerable. During those cyclical periods when Americans seem the most fearful of the outsider it falls to the faith community to witness forcefully to the love of God for those who cannot defend themselves. Now is time for people of faith to advocate for those who still see the United States as a place of promise and opportunity.

Contact Creede Hinshaw at hinnie.net.