Diocesan News Releases
Bishop Itty's letter to President George W. Bush regarding immigration policy discussions
By
Apr 13, 2006, 12:07

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

At a time when we continue to extol the virtues of democracy and seek to uphold principles of fairness, liberty, and equality in the conduct of our foreign policy, it is especially distressing to learn how these same qualities seem to be absent in some of our public policy discussions at home.  The current highly-charged deliberations in Congress about our country’s immigration policies are extremely disturbing.  Especially alarming are some of the provisions of the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Act of 2005 (HR 4437) which would make it a federal crime for human beings to render assistance to other human beings whose legal residency status is in question.

On April 10, thousands of immigrants, their families, and supporters staged rallies around the nation in support of comprehensive immigration reform. Among those speaking out in favor of reforming the US immigration system were religious leaders, including members of my own faith tradition—the Episcopal Church. Faith communities have been strong advocates in the recent upsurge of support for immigrant rights.

We are a nation whose legacy of blessings and abundance has been created by the hard work of generations of immigrants. Therefore, I find it mean-spirited, inhuman, and morally reprehensible to adopt any legislation that would diminish our humanity or disaffirm the dignity of any human beings.

Churches, social service agencies, and a variety of humanitarian organization throughout the country respond to human needs wherever they may be present.  In the Christian context, the biblical story of the Good Samaritan and the many other parables and miracles performed by Jesus Christ, highlight the commitment of Christians to serve all persons, in all manners, circumstances, and stations in life.  Any legislative measures which seek to preclude such efforts are an affront to our shared commitment to common decency and justice.

As a Bishop of the Episcopal Church, I join with so many colleagues from other faith traditions, to share my deep concern with the direction of some provisions of HR 4437 and related legislation.  The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church “declares its strong opposition to any legislation that would make it unlawful for faith based or humanitarian organizations to act to relieve the suffering of undocumented immigrants…”

At a time when we chastise and denounce other governments for their abuse of common standards of decency and fundamental human rights, it is imperative that we follow our own commitment to democratic principles in an honorable, morally just, and respectable manner.

Criminalizing acts of kindness, mercy, and compassion is an affront to the democratic values of our nation and runs counter to the Judeo-Christian principles on which our nation was founded. As a nation we must respond to the economic, political, and social realities of our time which are at the root of current problems.  Denying education, health care, or social services to undocumented children and their parents is neither the answer nor the morally appropriate response to immigration reform.  Indeed, the expression of compassion is an important virtue of any truly great democracy. We as a people can do far better!

Sincerely Yours,

The Right Reverend Johncy Itty, D.D, Ph.D
Ninth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon

[For a related story, see the Episcopal News Service coverage at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_73482_ENG_HTM.htm]