{"id":9194,"date":"2018-09-24T17:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T21:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icpj.org\/blog\/?p=9194"},"modified":"2022-07-20T15:24:01","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T19:24:01","slug":"icpj-statement-on-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icpj.org\/blog\/2018\/icpj-statement-on-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"ICPJ Statement on Immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice unequivocally stands with our immigrant sisters and
\nbrothers throughout the United States and with our immigrant neighbors in Washtenaw County.
\nOur advocacy and our work with immigrants moves us to speak out and act for justice for our
\nneighbors:<\/p>\n

There is a U.S. migration policy disaster, not a migration crisis.<\/strong> Contrary to the impression
\ncreated by xenophobic rhetoric, apprehensions of migrants at the southern border were down
\n44% in 2017, and net migration from Mexico has been negative since 2008 as more Mexicans
\nare leaving the United States than entering. The foreign-born population (documented and
\nundocumented) is about 13% in the United States, a smaller proportion than at the peak in 1890
\nand less than many other countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and
\nGermany.<\/p>\n

Numerous studies confirm that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the native-born\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>population. The U.S. government began criminalizing unauthorized immigration itself
\nwith \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Operation Streamline\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 2005, making it a misdemeanor to enter without inspection and a
\nfelony to re-enter, creating a massive windfall for the privatized detention industry. Falsely
\nstigmatizing our immigrant neighbors as criminals fuels racist and xenophobic hatred and
\ndivision in our society.<\/p>\n

People who cross the border without permission are not deliberately choosing to break the law
\nrather than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153waiting in line\u00e2\u20ac\u009d: Essentially there is no line to wait in, because U.S. policy allows
\nvery few opportunities for legal migration.<\/p>\n

Harsh immigration policies and walls do not keep people out<\/strong>, because desperate people will
\nmigrate for survival. Rather, these policies only make migrants vulnerable to abuse and
\nsuffering. They die trying to cross the desert in more remote places, they are preyed upon in
\ntransit by criminal networks and governments, and once in the United States they are subject to
\nlabor abuses by employers who exploit their precarious legal status.<\/p>\n

Many migrants are desperately seeking refuge from poverty and violence fueled by U.S.<\/strong>
\npolicies.<\/strong> The U.S. government spent billions of dollars in the 1980s propping up repressive
\nCentral American regimes serving the interests of oligarchs, devastating those societies and
\nfueling ongoing cycles of violence. Over 70% of guns used by drug and crime syndicates in
\nMexico come from the United States. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Free trade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d policies that enrich global corporations have
\ndevastated subsistence agriculture and ravaged the poor in Mexico and Central America. The
\nviolent gangs that plague Central America were formed on the streets of Los Angeles, and sent to
\nEl Salvador when U.S. authorities began rounding them up and deporting them in 1989.<\/p>\n

There is a moral obligation to help those who flee their homelands.<\/strong> Every major religious
\nand spiritual tradition commands us to welcome the stranger and help the less fortunate. We also
\nhave an obligation under international law to provide refuge to those who have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153well-founded
\nfear of persecution\u00e2\u20ac\u009d based on belonging to a targeted group, and to not send them back to the\u00c2\u00a0country from which they have fled. People who present themselves to officials at the border
\nasking for asylum are complying with the law. The U.S. and the rest of the world embraced this
\nobligation in ratifying the Refugee Convention after the horrors of WWII, and has a tradition of
\nbeing a place of refuge. Yet the U.S. government has been stripping away protections and
\nramping up the obstacles for asylum-seekers. Of the 13 million Syrian refugees, the U.S. has
\ntaken only 33,000 total (and only 11 Syrians in the first 3-1\/2 months of this year). The U.S. and
\nMexican governments have teamed up in the mass deportation of immigrants from Honduras, El
\nSalvador, and Guatemala, where they face state-sponsored violence and some of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\nhighest homicide rates.<\/p>\n

Recently the U.S. administration has hit a new moral low in deliberately tearing children from their parents<\/strong>, detaining some 3,000 in unacceptable conditions, withholding information on their whereabouts, and cynically claiming that small children can represent themselves in court.<\/p>\n

We call out to people of faith and conscience to mobilize locally and nationally for:
\na just, welcoming, and inclusive approach to immigration;<\/p>\n