Conservative Christians mum on immigration bills

Advocates at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, can usually expect a warm greeting from large evangelical groups wielding clout in the halls of Congress.

But this year, they're getting a downright chilly reception to one of their priority agenda items: immigration reform.

As Congress grapples with legislation regarding an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, the nation's most powerful conservative Christian organizations have been watching from the sidelines.

The Christian right says it has other issues at the moment, such as the battle against same-sex marriage.

Evangelicals on the immigration front lines say time is running out.

Near Tucson, Ariz., Maryada Vallet travels the desert in a pickup, stopping to not only feed undocumented border crossers, but to wash their blistered feet. It's a gesture from biblical accounts.

Such volunteer work, warns World Relief staff attorney Amy Bliss, could lead to federal prosecution if the House bill were to become law.

"Anyone who believes" in the biblical story of the gentile who stopped to help a wounded man, Vallet says, "should be outraged that ... the government is making it a crime to be a good Samaritan."

Roman Catholics, too, are concerned about the pending legislation. Some bishops have denounced it.

Earlier this month Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony went even further. At Ash Wednesday services, he called on Roman Catholics to embrace immigrants regardless of legal status.

"I would say to all priests, deacons and members of the church that we are not going to observe this law," said Mahony, leader of the nation's largest archdiocese.

In addition to providing for a fence along 700 miles of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border (among other things), HR 4437, which was approved in the House in December, would criminalize humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants.

The Senate bill, currently before the Senate Judiciary Committee, has similar language. But it contains a very limited exception for noncompensated "emergency humanitarian assistance," which would include emergency medical care and food, according to the National Immigration Law Center, which advocates for low-income immigrants' rights.

Liberal religious activists say evangelical participation could make the difference in what finally makes it into the law.

"To have the evangelical voice there [advocating in Washington, D.C.] has been particularly important to this administration, which listens to them," says C. Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries for the Episcopal Church U.S.A., a mainline Protestant denomination with a liberal bent. "They have access to leadership that we've not had access to."

Yet despite appeals for help from evangelicals at Baltimore-based World Relief and Arlington, Va.-based Jubilee Campaign, the faith's political heavy hitters have kept mum on immigration.

Led by evangelical organizers at World Relief, scores of religious groups signed a statement in October calling for a process to let undocumented immigrants apply for legal status. Signatories ranged from the Union for Reform Judaism to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In Congress, debate hinges largely on whether immigrants who pay a fine and other penalties should be able to seek legal status. A bill proposed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would allow for such a process, while President Bush's guest-worker proposal would require the undocumented to leave after a designated period. Whether family members should be separated or kept together also looms large as an issue up for grabs.

Evangelicals' hesitancy to get involved traces, observers say, to political as much as moral reservations. Evangelicals might be inclined to sympathize with fellow Christians from south of the border who have taken a grave personal risk in order to support their families back at home, but, says Bliss: "The rhetoric is considered a liberal issue. Fear of looking weak or too liberal permeates a lot of the discussion."

Evangelical groups, if determined to appear tough on illegal immigration, could endorse the House-approved bill, which doesn't address the question of what to do with undocumented immigrants. But those who appear unsympathetic toward immigrants run other political risks. They could alienate business interests — political allies in industries known to employ undocumented workers. They could also run afoul of a growing foreign-born constituency, according to Manuel Vasquez, associate professor of religion at the University of Florida and an expert on religion and immigration.

Faced with the specter of political costs no matter where they come down on immigration, leading evangelical groups are opting not to get involved.

That means, barring an unexpected change of heart, the road to resolving the fates of some 11 million, mostly Christian immigrants to the United States seems certain to include minimal input from the evangelical conscience.

Information from The Associated Press and Seattle Times staff was included in this report.