ELCA New Jersey Bishop Addresses Impact of Immigration Raids on Children

WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- The Rev. E. Roy Riley, bishop, New
Jersey Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
ELCA), Hamilton Square, spoke Oct. 31 at a news conference here
on the impact of workplace immigration raids on pastors,
churches, social service agencies and the children of immigrants.
The news conference marked the release of "Paying the
Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children,"
a comprehensive study of the social, economic and psychological
effects that workplace immigration raids have had on children,
families and the institutions that support them. According to
the report, more than 5 million children in the United States
have at least one parent who is an undocumented immigrant, and
the number of undocumented immigrants arrested in workplaces has
increased sevenfold between 2002 and 2006.
"The daily impacts in our communities, homes and workplaces
from random searches that result in deporting parents and
splitting up families are taking their toll on churches, local
governments and social services agencies, not to mention the
children," said Riley, who cited several examples from his synod
and from the report "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of
Immigrant Families," released in February by Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service), Baltimore, and the Women's Commission
for Refugee Women and Children. "Where there are criminals among
us we need to pursue them for the sake of safety in our communities,
but Congress should call a halt to the random pursuit of
undocumented people, because those who are being swept up in the
net are largely families, parents and children who do us no harm
and in fact help to sustain the economic life of this country,"
he said.
Global Refuge is a cooperative agency of the ELCA, the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod and Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America.
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national
Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States,
and the Urban Institute jointly released the study and led the news
conference. Global Refuge staff was also present at the event. LIRS partners
with NCLR in its work on comprehensive immigration reform.
"This is a great study that's been prepared, but we shouldn't
need a detailed study to tell what happens to children, especially
young children, who are separated from their parents," said Riley.
"We already know the answer to that. What we need is a report on how
we got this way. How did we lose sight of the fact that we are an
immigrant nation, virtually built entirely by immigrant people? How
did we lose sight of the most fundamental of our democratic and
family values: the protection of the most vulnerable among us, in
this case the children?"
Also participating in the news conference were Janet Murguía,
NCLR president and CEO; Miriam Calderón, associate director, NCLR
Policy Analysis Center; Randy Capps, senior research associate, Urban
Institute; Rosa Maria Castañeda, research associate, Urban Institute;
and William H. Bentley, president, Voices for America's Children.
All are from here. Steve Joel, superintendent, Grand Island School
District, Grand Island, Neb., also participated.

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"Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on
America's Children" is available at
http://www.urban.org/publications/411566.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog