“Rabbi Morris Allen serves the Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights. Vic Rosenthal is executive director of Jewish Community Action.”
Our work includes persuading those who harbor suspicions of those wishing to be in America.
…We must engage with those who continue to harbor suspicions of immigrants, hear them and help them to understand a different story. We must help them appreciate that, rather than being “illegal,” these people have provided this country with work that would otherwise not have been done. We must seek reconciliation with those who fail to understand that the greatness of America and indeed of humanity is our diversity and our own uniqueness.
We have reached the time to finally pass comprehensive immigration reform. Comprehensive reform must not be punitive; instead, it must reflect the truth that for too long business and corporate farmers have depended on immigrant workers but have assumed no real responsibility for their well-being. Real reform means that the industries that employed these workers should share in responsibility of advocating for a pathway to citizenship, share in any fines and work toward the restoration of human dignity.
In Minnesota, and across the country, business, labor and the faith community are working together to pass immigration reform. This must include worker protections and opportunities for workers to move from job to job and still stay on a path to citizenship.
Immigration reform must include a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants without punitive conditions. Comprehensive reform must unite families that have been separated for years, including parents, children, spouses, siblings and grandparents. We also believe that immigration reform should include LGBTQ family members as well.
Real reform means that children who were born here should never fear that they are less than American citizens, and that children who were brought here and who grew up here are able to secure the same promise of any child who sat next to them in school — for these children had the same dreams as any American child.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has passed legislation that has many of the most important components of real immigration reform. The Jewish community in Minnesota, led by Jewish Community Action, is working closely with other faith communities, organized labor and the business community to make sure that this time, this year, comprehensive reform will pass.
