Florida Catholic | Interfaith Forum

Many faiths, one voice for immigrants

Jewish temple hosts interfaith forum to look at immigration reform in faith.

PRISCILLA GREEAR | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 11.16.07

MIAMI | With doleful eyes, Juan Gomez looked at the 100 people in front of him and put a human side to the topic they were there to debate — immigration reform.

Asked to speak at a Nov. 4 interfaith forum hosted by Temple Israel of Greater Miami, Gomez, 19, talked about what it was like for him and his family to be taken in handcuffs from their home in July and placed in detention centers. A week earlier, his parents and grandmother had been deported to Colombia.

Friends lobbied Congress, which delayed Gomez’s and his brother Alex’s deportation until October 2009. But he was dismayed when Congress failed to pass the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors), which would give some 65,000 undocumented youths like him a chance to legalize their status.

“This next couple of months will be extremely difficult for my brother and me,” said Gomez, who graduated from Miami Killian High School with a 3.96 grade point average. “Rest assured, we will continue to push for this just cause, or all of our efforts will go to waste if we don’t get support from this community.”

Gomez’s story fell on sympathetic ears at the forum, a new collaborative effort among the Archdiocese of Miami, Temple Israel of Greater Miami and South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice, on whose board sits Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Estévez.

Temple Israel Rabbi Jody Cohen said it is senseless to deport young people who love this country and want to contribute. She also is concerned that the rhetoric against Gomez and other undocumented immigrants is becoming increasingly mean-spirited and isolationist.

“Whether you are running from a political situation or running from poverty, no matter what motivated you to come here, the truth is we’re here and we are all God’s children,” said Father Alberto Cutié, general director of the archdiocese’s Pax Catholic Communications and a speaker at the forum.

As the child of Cuban exiles with a privileged immigration status, he said he felt a responsibility to speak for the voiceless, and emphasized that government policies must address the root causes of poverty in Latin America.

“We as a civilized people need to look for civilized solutions. We need to start talking to people in Latin America. We need to have some type of foreign policy that is meaningful,” Father Cutié said. “The immigration battle has to be accomplished with the battle against poverty and discrimination and deprivation.”

Brian Siegal, executive director of the American Jewish Committee Greater Miami and Broward chapter, also spoke at the forum, which was sponsored by Faith in the City, an ecumenical organization.

“Immigration reform and immigration in general are very much in the media and in the minds of Americans, and the goal of this forum is essentially to insert a religious voice into the whole debate and not from a policy perspective but more from a human rights perspective,” Siegal said.

Like the church’s “Justice for Immigrants” campaign, the American Jewish Committee also has been advocating for comprehensive immigration reform that would strengthen national security and provide pathways for undocumented immigrants to earn legalization, Siegal said.

The Rev. Janet Horman, pastor of Killian Pines United Methodist Church in Miami and an attorney, said the United Methodist Church is also engaged in advocacy, establishing attorney-supervised free legal clinics through its Justice for Our Neighbors initiative. She plans to open a clinic at her church.

“To criminalize people who do jobs that benefit us, that many people would like to avoid, seems to be particularly offensive to our faith heritage,” Rev. Horman said.

As part of its campaign, the Catholic Church is advocating for passage of the Food and Energy Security Act, which is being debated in the Senate. The act would more equitably distribute commodity payments, or subsidies, to the smaller American farmers, said Linda Coughlin, project coordinator for Catholic Charities’ Office of Social Advocacy.

This is needed because the largest U.S. farming corporations now disproportionately benefit, which enables them to sell goods at below production cost in developing countries, Coughlin said.

In Mexico, “The North American Free Trade Agreement has driven 1.5 million farmers off their land. Now all of a sudden they can’t compete with low-cost commodity imports from the U.S.,” Coughlin said. Many head north, as more than half of the 2.5 million American agricultural workers are estimated to be undocumented, according to National Farm Worker Ministry.

Coughlin said the event planning committee will continue exploring ways to further educate the public about immigration issues.

“It does impact our brothers and sisters whether they are Americans or come from other countries. As part of our baptism, we have a responsibility to look after the strangers, widows and orphans,” Coughlin said.

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Many faiths, one voice for immigrants

Jewish temple hosts interfaith forum to look at immigration reform in faith.

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