Expert in the Field: Greensboro, North Carolina

Sam Fulwood Visits a Meeting on Immigration

As the immigration reform debate heats up in Washington, D.C., hundreds of faith communities across the country are showing a new, grassroots-led activism on behalf of undocumented workers and their families. The following comes from one such town hall meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina:

Rev. Julie Peeples, Congregational United Church of Christ: As the issue of immigration started to come to the forefront, I realized this was a moral issue--an ethical, religious, spiritual issue--and wanted to be able to help my congregants learn more about it.

Christopher Liu-Beers, North Carolina Council of Churches: A number of people across North Carolina want to see comprehensive immigration reform happen, and we're hoping to see an especially strong turnout among faith communities here tonight. We have a really fast growing immigrant population across the state, and in part because of that fast growth, we've seen some backlash and some negative perceptions in the public sphere.

Joseph C. Moran, Church World Service: Xenophobia in the United States is exacerbated by the current economic crisis, and it behooves people of faith--people of all faiths--to stand up for the principles that are in everybody's religious background.

Dr. Maria T. Palmer, Multicultural Student Center North Carolina A&T State University: We have worked really hard to try to educate the community so that Greensboro will remain a welcoming place.

Veronica Murphy, Spanish interpreter: I would like to see everyone enlightened, and I would like to see all of us learn something that maybe we didn't know, especially those that might be against immigration.

Lie-Beers: We want everyone to hear that there are lots and lots of folks out there who want to see change happen.

Peeples: I hope people come away with it hearing the stories of immigrants so it's no longer this broad, vague general issue of immigration--it's now Sandra's story; it's now about Luis.

Murphy: I have been a Spanish interpreter in North Carolina for the past 10 years. A lot of the families I work with are undocumented and just seeing the struggles that they face--daily struggles--that for some of us would be just almost devastating, the things that they endure.

Palmer: I have had to tell students that they were not legally here. Their parents have pulled me aside and said, "He doesn't know that we came across the border illegally. Can you explain to him why we can't fill out his forms--why we can't do this." And that is almost heartbreaking.

Francisco Risso, Western North Carolina Workers' Center: The conditions that caused immigration are really out of the control of poor, working people. They have to do with trade policies and that the recognition of that, and the recognition that we should treat people humanely.

Liu-Beers: People of faith are really engaged in this issue, and churches especially are in many places the front line of people who are working with immigrants on a day-in and day-out basis.

Murphy: The church is--it's to me the best place to have this type of conversation, because, as we even see in the Bible, it talks about caring for the alien.

Palmer: In a faith community, that's a given, that you should care about the people around you.

Liu-Beers: The church is very symbolic as a place where we can talk about difficult issues and address them openly and honestly, but with respect.

Risso: Speaking from a Christian perspective, what Christ's message was--love of fellow human beings--is a political message, I think, in its nature.

Peeples: Jesus never stopped and said, "Is this a political act I'm doing, or is this religious?" It's all spiritual; it's all political; I don't see where those lines are crossing.

Moran: I think for the religious community it's an issue of deep moral conviction.

Palmer: Every major religion calls on its followers to treat the foreigner with respect.

Liu-Beers: This is clearly a difficult conversation for our society, for our state, and I think that having it in a church will hopefully lend an air of respect to the conversation and elevate the level of that conversation.