CA Assembly Member Introduces Strict Immigration Law [UPDATE]

In a discussion group last year with immigration advocacy organizations, we discussed the possibility of Arizona SB 1070 inspired laws in California. A few legislators were identified who had run on platforms that included harsh treatment of immigrants. There was a consensus in the room that it would be more difficult to pass this kind of legislation in California in 2011 that it was in Arizona in 2010, but we should be vigilant.

California Assembly member Tim Donnelly (R-59th Assembly District) has introduced The Secure Immigration Enforcement Act, or AB 26. The bill would allow citizens to sue any local government that operates as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. It would also require every employer in the state to use E-Verify to check on the immigration status of employees.*

Tim Donnelly is a Republican assembly member from Southern California and a Tea Party member. During a recent interview on Fox News, Donnelly said that beyond this law, he also wanted to target the use of welfare money by undocumented immigrants.*

For a story on this see KPBS: CA Assembly Member Introduces Strict Immigration Law. 

*Source: KPBS

[UPDATE] from California Immigrant Policy Center


Dear Friends

There is a strongly anti-immigrant bill sponsored by Assembly Member Tim Donnelly, the founder of California's largest Minutemen chapter,  that is about to come before the California Assembly Judiciary Committee. Although we are confident that it will ultimately fail, we need your voice in opposition to this harmful bill.

AB 26 (R-Donnelly) would prohibit public officials and entities from limiting local enforcement of immigration law, it would mandate the E-Verify program, it would criminalize work for many immigrants and subject taxpayers to needless and costly litigation over its constitutionality, at a time when CA cannot afford it.

The following is a sample opposition letter to AB 26 addressed to  Assembly Member Mike Feuer, the Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Assembly Member Feuer needs to hear from us about the harm this bill would do if it were to become law. PLEASE WRITE AND SEND IN YOUR LETTER TODAY. The hearing is currently set for April 5, 2011. In order to get into the file for the hearing, your letter should be submitted by March 29th. Thank You!

NOTE: I will post the letter in a separate post above.

Which Way, America?: Reframing, Regrouping and Realigning for Immigrant Integration

Wednesday, April 6, 2011
8:30AM - 4:30 PM
Davidson Conference Center, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA

RSVP NOW!
Go to http://usc.edu/esvp and enter in CSII for the event code.

With the failure to secure comprehensive immigration reform in Washington – including the inability to pass even the DREAM Act – two things seem clear. The first is that what is driving the debate is not simply the immigration system per se, but also a deeper anxiety about the changing demographics and economics of our nation. The second is that the challenge of immigration policy is moving down the geographic scale: increasingly, the battles about integrating or restricting immigrants will occur at the state, regional, and local levels.

http://csii.usc.edu/events_which_way_america.html

Mark 7:24-30: The Syro-Phoenician Woman, Social Boundaries, Evangelicals, and Latin American Immigration

The account in Mark 7:24-30 begins with Jesus arriving in Tyre and entering a house with the desire to have his presence remain unknown. Without specifying the amount of time that had passed since Jesus arrived, the story teller writes, “as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet.” We discover that this woman, who began to beg Jesus to heal her daughter by driving out the demon that was possessing her, was a Greek born Syro-Phoenician.

The social and theological import of this encounter is grasped only when the multiple social boundaries in place during this socio-historical location that get crossed during this meeting are illuminated. Commenting on the marginalized space this woman inhabited during this time period, Jim Perkinson notes, “She is, perhaps more than almost any other character in Mark, Jesus' "other"—not only geographically, but sexually, racially and religiously, "on the outside." By approaching Jesus in the manner she did, the Syro-Phoenician woman was crossing these socially constructed boundaries that were intended to divide, subverting them, and challenging the socio-political status quo that they maintained.

After the Syro-Phoenician woman “begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter[,]” Jesus responded--in a manner that appears to be informed by the socially constructed boundaries this woman is challenging by her action--by saying, “First let the children eat all they want...for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” Regardless of the exact reason why Jesus used this term, the importance of this statement is how it reveals Jesus’ inability to see this woman as a part of his ministry and mission.

It is at this point in the story that the woman’s relentlessness and quick wit move the story forward and deeper. The Syro-Phoenician woman’s profound response to Jesus was, “Yes, Lord...but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And Jesus responded astonishingly by claiming that as a result of her reply, he casted the demon out of her daughter! By crossing the socially constructed boundaries that were a part of the established order, and by verbally challenging Jesus’ understanding of his ministry, the Syro-Phoenician woman became the catalyst for Jesus to see another dimension of his divine mission.

How are we to understand and appropriate this story in light of the socially constructed boundaries that are being crossed by Latin Americans migrating into the United States today, namely the national, racial, and socioeconomic boundaries? First, this story must provoke majority culture Christians to examine their own socially constructed boundaries that prevent them from seeing Latin American migrants as a part of their ministry. Like Jesus when he first encountered the Syro-Phoenician woman, it is these social boundaries that cause majority culture Christians to view Latin American migrants as outsiders, and thus, unable to see their presence as making a claim on their life and participation in God’s mission. These boundaries must first be exposed in order to subsequently be transcended.

Second, and the most critical aspect of this reading in order to understand and appropriate this story today, is the way in which the life of the Syro-Phenician woman was able to help Jesus transcend these social boundaries, lead Jesus to see a deeper dimension of God’s mission, and thus, to enact a deeper dimension of his own ministry. The lives of Latin American migrants in the U.S. today are crossing the socially constructed and ideological boundaries of majority culture evangelicals, and as a result, are confronting them as outsiders. Dalit Feminist, Surekha Nelavala, suggests that “the role of Jesus in this story breaks through the boundaries of insider-outsider and challenges Christians who operate rigidly within these boundaries.”

Like the Syro-Phoenician woman in her encounter with Jesus, Latin American migrants in the United States today, carry the potential to awaken majority culture Christians to a deeper dimension of God’s mission, and their participation in it. By seeing Jesus’ willingness to re-think his relationship to the Syro-Phoenician woman as a reference point, majority culture Christians must be willing to re-think the way they relate to Latin American migrants in their own lives. Are majority culture Christians going to relate to Latin American migrants through the grid constructed by their social boundaries, and thus, continue to treat them as “dogs?” Or, are they going to allow the presence and lives of Latin American migrants to challenge these socially constructed boundaries, expose them as the ideological commitments they are, and to lead them a deeper participation in God’s mission by standing in solidarity with, and extending hospitality to them? In order for majority culture Christians to be faithful to the witness of Christ within this contemporary social situation, they must be willing to transcend these social boundaries in order to extend love and hospitality to their Latin American migrant neighbors.

The Border Between Them

Some of the complexity of the current immigration system is captured in this story, The Border Between Them, from KCET.




Just over 9 minutes into the video, US Representative Dana Rohrbacher claims it is all simple, the family should go back to Mexico and wait in line like the good Mexican immigrants. This view is actually held by a few people, and this position gets Rohrbacher re-elected to congress. That is unfortunate for the children portrayed in this piece.

There are other people who believe, and I believe that the majority of people who care to understand the situation, that the immigration system needs to be overhauled so that it is compassionate, comprehensive, and fair. What do you think?

Thanks for visiting this blog. You belong here. Your thoughts are welcome. Please feel free to leave a comment.

The Law, Love, and Immigration from a Biblical Perspective

Friend of the Loving the Stranger blog, Matthew Soerens and author of Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate begins a blog series on Romans 13 today at Undocumented.tv. Check out the first in the series: Further Thoughts on Romans 13--Part 1.

I just finished teaching a class on hermeneutics for Seminario Bíblico de las Américas. Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. In our class we were able to clarify the meaning of many passages of scripture by looking a the context of the passage--the historical and cultural context from which the text was written, the intent of the author, the immediate context of specific passage, the context of the book, the testament and the meta-narrative of the whole Bible. We asked questions about how this passage fits with the redemptive purpose of the entirety of scripture. To understand Romans 13:1-5 we also need to understand Romans 12. We need to understand the church's relationship to the Roman government at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, and Acts 5, and in AD 90 when the Apostle John wrote of his Revelation of Jesus Christ. We also need to consider the narrative of Shiphrah and Puah, Hebrew midwives named in Exodus chapter one. Always check the context to avoid a misinformed pretext.

Check out Matt's series this week at Undocumented.tv.

Immigration: State by State: Los Angeles Times

"Utah is the latest state to consider a local fix to a federal problem. The federal government needs to step up." L.A. Times Editorial, Mar. 14, 2011.

The Los Angeles Times editorial board calls on federal lawmakers to revive the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors bill, known as the DREAM Act and  the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act, or AgJobs. Last year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) sponsored an AgJobs bill.

The Justice Conference, Immigration with Matthew Soerens and Jenny Hwang Yang

Lynne Hybels with Jenny Hwang Yang and Matthew Soerens from The Justice Conference on Vimeo.
Author and advocate Lynne Hybels interviews Jenny Hwang Yang and Matthew Soerens, authors of Welcoming the Stranger, on the topic of immigration