Source: Immigration Policy Center
Washington D.C. – In the Immigration Policy Center’s latest Perspective on Arizona, Arizona’s Anti-Immigration Law is also Anti-Faith, Jenny Hwang, Director of Advocacy and Policy for the Refugee and Immigration Program at World Relief, discusses the difficult situation faith-based organizations are put in when punitive immigration measures like Arizona’s SB1070 are enacted.
“With a stroke of a pen, the activities of ministries that have existed for over 30 years to empower immigrants to gain life skills, learn English, and become self-sufficient will be considered illegal.”
Hwang continues, “asking for someone’s legal status was never a requirement for a church to serve those in need, but because this law makes so many of the activities that churches engage in illegal, many churches will be forced to choose between following what they feel like God has called them to do (serving immigrants in their communities) and disobeying the Arizona law, or obeying the Arizona law and not being able to carry out what they feel is so central to their identity as a faith-based organization.”
