“The political future (is) uncertain because of election,” Julia Thorne, manager of immigration issues in the PC(USA)’s Office of the General Assembly, told 100 participants in the 2008 New Immigrant Ministries Convocation here. “A minority is calling the shots, so the church must stand up and speak up or [the treatment of immigrants] is going to get worse.”
Thorne outlined the services that are available to PC(USA) congregations and presbyteries trying to minister to immigrants in their communities and her counsel to convocation participants was often painfully frank.
Asked by one Midwestern pastor how to reach out to the hundreds of immigrants who are pouring into the community because of plentiful meat-packing jobs and welcoming churches, Thorne said, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but there’s going to be a raid and your first priority should be to prepare for it now because it will tear your community apart.” Because the pastor’s area is rural, Thorne told her, “There are not a lot of resources, particularly legal resources, so the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) targets such places.”
Another favorite INS tactic that directly impacts churches, Thorne said, is the setting up of checkpoints on Sunday mornings near congregations that are known to attract immigrant worshipers.
Churches such as the PC(USA) do not have a lot of resources at the national level — Thorne is the only immigration attorney on the General Assembly staff — and congregations and presbyteries are equally hard-pressed, so it’s essential, Thorne said, that Presbyterians collaborate with other denominations and humanitarian agencies.
“Methodists have the best program, ‘Justice for our Neighbors,’” Thorne said, “and in New York we’re beginning to work with them because no one has enough money to meet the need. We need more ecumenical and collaborative arrangements,” she said, “such as presbyteries joining together or presbyteries and Methodist conferences combining resources to hire immigration attorneys.”
Whichever way the immigration debate goes during the election season, churches are going to be pressed to respond. “Whether the status quo is preserved or a new law passes, there are 12 million people that are going to need help,” Thorne said.
Outreach to immigrant communities in the U.S. is not just a matter of biblical imperative, Thorne added, it’s a matter of denominational survival. “In 30 years, the U.S. is going to be minority Caucasian,” she explained, “but the PC(USA) is 90 percent Caucasian — unless something changes, we’re dying.”
And new immigrant ministry is, theologically, far more than simply “welcoming the stranger,” Thorne said. “Look, Abraham and Sarah were deported. Joseph was trafficked, Jesus was a political asylee. The New Testament is not so much a story of strangers being welcomed as it is the creation of a new community of inclusion. The same people Presbyterians meet on mission trips are in our own neighborhoods.”
And those people need help navigating the labyrinthine U.S. immigration laws. “We’ve lost five pastors (to deportation) this year,” Thorne said, “mostly because of simple mistakes. Religious worker cases are extremely complex, so many attorneys don’t know all the ins and outs.”
Thorne said she spends nine months a year traveling to presbyteries and congregations. She never speaks just with immigrants, she said. “I will only talk to church members if the pastor is with them because it’s just as important for the pastors to understand as the member with an immigration issue.”
On her visits, Thorne said, she always requests a meeting with the largest church in the presbytery. “The educational task is so huge that we cannot restrict our work to immigrant churches,” she said. “The large churches are usually best equipped to help us spread the word farther faster.”
She also encourages each presbytery she visits to establish an immigration task force. “There are so many issues — such as power of attorney, delegation of parental authority for children, legal recourse in case of raids,” she said.
“We have resources — Bible studies, manuals for setting up ESL and naturalization classes, tools for legislative advocacy,” Thorne said. “But congregations and presbyteries have to be involved. It’s painful how few Americans are informed.”
As if she doesn’t have enough to do, Thorne said she will be attempting to revitalize a dormant group called “Presbyterians for Just Immigration” to help better support Presbyterians’ immigration efforts.
