Pastors, bishops and the head of the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States are calling on Congress to support the US Citizenship Act of 2021, which President Joe Biden proposed on the first day of his administration.
In a letter published Thursday, leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America threw their support behind what they called “fair and compassionate transformations to our nation’s broken immigration system.”
In this 20th January file photo President Joe Biden waits to sign his first executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. As one of his first acts, Biden offered a sweeping immigration overhaul that would provide a path to US citizenship for the estimated 11 million people who are in the United States illegally. It would also codify provisions wiping out some of President Donald Trump’s signature hard-line policies, including trying to end existing, protected legal status for many immigrants brought to the US as children and crackdowns on asylum rules. PICTURE: AP Photo/Evan Vucci/File photo.
The proposed legislation would create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US. It also would provide resources to address a backlog of immigration cases and funding for alternatives to detention, and it would make so-called Dreamers – undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children – eligible for green cards.
The Lutherans’ letter was initiated by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which works with the federal government to resettle refugees and reunite families nationwide. The letter was signed by 568 clergy, including the denomination’s presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, as well as the heads of organisations such as LIRS and Lutheran Services in America.
It explains how its 3.3 million members are “called by God to love our neighbor, accompany the vulnerable, and welcome the stranger”. It also briefly recounts the denomination’s history of “welcoming and caring for newcomers”, noting that its predecessor bodies have been helping immigrants and other displaced peoples as far back as the 1860s.
The bill, introduced by Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, in mid-February, is stalled in the House, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying recently that Democrats don’t have the votes necessary to pass it in its current form. Representative Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, called the bill “important and serious” in a recent statement to Politico magazine, and he said the legislation would likely be the subject of hearings in April.
“Making progress on these long overdue immigration reforms is important to us as leaders who serve in church and society,” the letter from ELCA leaders closes.
“We ask God to guide our nation and grant the grace of a welcoming heart. To that end, we ask you to work collaboratively, with haste, to promote this comprehensive legislative solution through Congress and provide lasting solutions that will strengthen our nation for generations to come.”
