Give credit to the New York based United Methodist Women. Most religious lobby groups currently pushing for “immigration reform” at least pay lip service to border security and law enforcement. But the UMW is bracingly, audaciously refreshingly, demanding completely open borders with no immigration law enforcement. Come one, come all, just like to a church pot luck supper!
UMW once was the largest women’s organization in America, with over 1 million members. Today it is likely the fastest declining women’s organization, with just over half a million, and plunging. Few church women under age 60 or even 70 are still members, and most of them are mercifully unaware of the radical politics long touted by the UMW’s New York activist bureaucrats. But thanks to the bequests of countless Methodist women now in glory, and the earnings from even more countless church bake sales and Christmas bazaars, the UMW no longer really needs members. It has endowments to fuel its leftist politicking in perpetuity.
Just in time to back President Obama’s immigration initiative, or more accurately, to offer proposals well to his left, UMW released its “Principles for How We Negotiate a Deal.” Here is the essence of what the church women want: “All raids, detention and deportation of migrants should be suspended, instead shifting resources to immigration processing and services for underserved communities.” So no further law enforcement, at all. They demand that immigration be forever detached from the “context of national security and border enforcement.” Instead it should all focus on “human rights, including economic and social rights.” Just to be clear, there must “no ‘enforcement first’ or enforcement/legalization trade-off deals.” UMW likewise insists there be no more talk of “war on terror,” which has “unjustly targeted Arab, Muslim and South Asian immigrant communities.” And no more talk of “war on drugs, “which after all was merely “pretext to profile, arrest, detain and shuttle primarily black and brown men through the criminal justice system directly to the deportation system.”
Bracing indeed.
UMW warns against dividing immigrants by “criminal” versus “law-abiding” immigrants,” or even “straight versus gay families, men versus women, immigrants currently in the United States versus those yet to come.” America should instead just have a permanent “y’all come” policy, no matter who you are or what you’ve done. And this giant mosaic of “diverse and integrated constituencies must be part of the policymaking process.” Don’t try to marginalize anyone now, ya hear! Amnesty for current illegals must not be granted at the expense of “future” immigrants. UMW even frets that the 1986 mass legalization didn’t go further in guaranteeing a warm welcome to all future illegals.
Oh, whoops, don’t call anybody “illegal.” If you do, that’s your hang-up. There is, according to UMW and most of the Religious Left, a universal right to U.S. residence, citizenship and unlimited welfare and entitlement benefits. Illegals should instead be considered special visitors and soon to be family. They are also victims of U.S. “global economic, trade, finance, and war policy that has forced millions to migrate to the United States.” What else could they do? Of course, absent the U.S., there would be universal peace and prosperity with no need for mass immigration. But since we’re stuck with America, there must be endless atonement and reparations from the guilty nation. Even “past criminal convictions of immigrants” ought not to matter. Are we going to be hospitable, or what? Employers must not be penalized for hiring illegals because, of course, nobody should be illegal. Even guest worker status must be abolished because it implies less than full automatic citizenship.
And of course UMW mandates that all immigrants immediately access all welfare and entitlement programs, including “reproductive and sexual health,” i.e. free contraceptives and abortions, courtesy of the taxpayer!
Also, no more walls or border security, please, which is so unwelcoming. What do we want our guests to think of us? UMW declares: “End militarization of the U.S. border!” UMW likewise wants to ditch free trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA.
Unconsidered or at least unmentioned in the UMW’s “principles” are the unfairness of illegal immigrants needing to travel to the U.S., at their own expense no less. Shouldn’t the U.S. offer travel vouchers to ensure safe and comfortable voyage? Better yet, why not U.S. stipends for all the tens of millions around the world who might like to relocate to the U.S. but would just as enjoyably stay home if subsidized by U.S. taxpayers, saving everyone the hassle of the immigration process?
Thank you, United Methodist Women, or at least your New York spokespersons, for so comprehensively and earnestly illustrating the absurd logical outcome of the most extreme “immigration reform” arguments from the Religious Left. The UMW’s non-negotiable principles, so filled with grievance and resentment, insult and dishonor all the millions of immigrants who have legitimately made America great over the centuries. They came to build a nation not of chaos and entitlement, but of laws and reward for honest endeavor.
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