Social-justice agency skeptical of Obama ‘actions’ on unaccompanied children, immigration

Please read and share this press release on President Obama’s recently announced plans concerning the deportation of unaccompanied children. Church World Service has also published a statement  which you can find HERE. Finally, there is a strong possibility that some of these children could be in Tacoma at Lewis McCord by the end of the week (LINK). Thanks to Rev. Lyda Pierce for collating this information.

Bill Mefford | Director of Civil & Human Rights | General Board of Church & Society

The General Board of Church & Society of The United Methodist Church is concerned by President Obama’s announced plans yesterday to address the presence in the United States of unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central America, and his continued reliance upon deportations as a salve for the immigration reform the House of Representatives has obstinately refused to enact.

While we welcome the president’s request to Congress for additional funding concerning the humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied children, we are shocked that he would ask Congress to also grant the administration further power to expeditiously deport these innocent children. We condemn the administration’s proposal for its emphasis on removing, detaining and denying these children access to life-saving protection.

The president’s letter asking Congress to change current law to allow for the expedited deportation of children without due process is appalling and should be rescinded immediately.

Address underlying causes

Both President Obama and House Leaders, in their respective announcements, have failed to address the underlying problems causing these children to flee. The violence in Central America has nothing to do with border security or interior enforcement in the United States.

The solution to this crisis lies in greater emphasis on addressing the root causes for the violence and forced migration. Areas for deeper analysis include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring that respect for human and labor rights are a central component of all bilateral and regional trade negotiations, and
• Considering the implications of U.S. counter-narcotics policies that have negative impacts such as violence against women, human rights violations, and forced displacement.

We should seriously consider the asylum requests of those fleeing from the South. We should also respond to these children in a humanitarian manner instead of deporting them at a faster pace as the president has urged.

A separate issue

On a separate issue, we support President Obama’ s announcement that he will take executive action to address the 11 million undocumented immigrants now living in the United States. We are skeptical, however, that his words will lead to much-needed alleviation from suffering. For far too long we have heard the administration claim that its deportation policy focuses only on immigrants deemed a threat to the United States. Over 2 million deportations later and innumerable families torn apart, we know this not to be true. It is time for action, not announcements.

Therefore, we strongly urge President Obama to:

• suspend deportations,
• end the Secure Communities program, and
• allow all undocumented individuals to apply for deferred action.

These actions would finally make the immigration policies of the United States consistent with the values of faith and humanitarianism.