Judy and Raul Cardenas
What did you feel as you read the story of Raul Cardenas' deportation?
How does the Cardenas' story matter to you?
Does it matter to you that Judy and Raul Cardenas and their three kids were active UUs?
If the Cardenas had been as active and as long-time members of UUFG as they were of 1st Universalist, Denver, when Raul was deported, how do you think our congregation would have responded?
A 1996 law made it much harder -- essentially impossible -- for foreign-born spouses to obtain legal status. Did you know about that law?
Linked Issues?
Priscilla Ledbury (member of First Universalist Church of Denver) is quoted:
Injustice against immigrants and gay people are "linked oppressions, no doubt about it,” she says: The struggles for immigrant rights and LGBT rights both come out of laws that deal unfairly with people who are different, forcing them to live in secrecy and fear. Both require creating an understanding that these people, too, are part of our community, often people we already know, work with, and love.Do you see immigrant and LGBT issues as linked? These are the two issues at the center of our "Standing on the Side of Love" campaign (see here). Do they seem to you to belong together?
Other Voices
Not all UUs are agreed on this issue. Rocilla Dilger (member of 1st Universalist, Denver) is quoted:
“I don’t understand why we’re supporting people who have broken the law. We can’t let everyone come across to our country. To me, it’s clear. They’ve broken the law. They should go back.”How would you respond? (It might be worth recalling that the Unitarian Service Committee (now the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee -- see here) had its beginnings in the creation -- in some cases, "forging" might have been the word -- of documents to help people get out of Nazi-occupied territories.)
Language
The UUA, along with immigrant organizations, advocates the term “undocumented” over “illegal” immigrant.
Does language matter?
Why This Issue Now?
The article asks:
Why this issue? Why now? What about the economy, our hollow democracy, Wall Street greed—and the very connected problems of joblessness, homelessness, and hunger? What about environmental justice and the climate crisis? Is immigration justice the best place to invest our energy at this moment?How would you answer?
UUA President Peter Morales is quoted:
How this country treats immigrants is an urgent moral issue of our day. It’s an appalling violation of our First Principle — respect for the inherent worth and dignity of each person — on a massive scale that is largely hidden from most Americans.Is he right?
Know the numbers
Estimated number of undocumented people now in the US: about 11 million
Proportion of all undocumented people who entered the country legally: About half.
Percentage increase in the number of undocumented immigrants since NAFTA was signed in 1994: 300.
Percent of the undocumented immigrants since 1994 who are from Mexico: 57
Decline in corn prices in Mexico as a result of subsidized US corn flooding the Mexican market: 70 percent.
Number of Mexican farmers driven off their land as a result: 2 million
The U.S. Brought This On Itself?
The stats above suggest the US role -- in pushing through NAFTA, and in our corn subsidies -- in creating the current immigration situation. Miguel De La Torre, professor of social ethics at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, is quoted:
When a nation enters into another nation to build roads to access their natural resources and their cheap labor, we should not be surprised when those same people take those same roads following everything that’s been stolen from them. We have an immigration problem because for over 100 years we have had a foreign policy that has stolen from these countries.
Is this a true? Is it important?
What Is Ours To Do?
Hundreds of immigrants die each year—by drowning, heat exhaustion, injuries, and excessive force by border patrol—trying to cross the Sonoran Desert and Rio Grande.What is ours to do?
Poor working families who have lived in the United States for years and committed no crime are separated when wage earners who can’t provide on-the-spot documentation are whisked off to ICE detention, moved from place to place, and denied outside contact. About half those detained are deported. In the first six months of 2011, the U.S. government deported moWhre than 46,000 parents, like Raúl, of U.S.-citizen children, many of whom then entered foster care.What is ours to do?
Fearful parents refuse basic services like free lunch programs, choosing that their children go hungry rather than providing information that might risk separation.What is ours to do?
The current system forces families into some horrible choices: What laws will they ignore, what risks will they take, in order to stay together? Is it better to live in fear, in a foreign and often hostile culture, in order to feed their families, keep them safe from worse violence, and give them hope for the future?What is ours to do?
Further reading: See UUA President Peter Morales' essay, "We Are One." Click here.
Can't make the lunch? Leave a comment here. (In the comment box, or click the word "comment" in the next line.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your thoughts?