While I appreciate the risk some Religious Right leaders are taking in supporting immigration reform legislation, it would be nice if they were at least willing to admit where the problem lies:
Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land and other evangelicals called for Congress and President Obama to set aside partisanship and special interests to resolve the controversy and problems of illegal immigration.
The immigration crisis "is fanning the flames of hostility and animosity and distrust between various elements in our society, and it is time for our representatives in Congress and our president to put aside partisanship, to put aside narrow political interests and do what is best for the country," said Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
"This just takes national will and insistence that our representatives and our senators and our president do what is in the best interest of the nation," Land said.
Both parties have failed on the issue, said Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
"Democrats are willing to save the auto industry, the housing market, health care and banks but somehow do not find time or the political will to save children from being separated from their parents, securing our borders and integrating 12 million into a legal status that would reconcile our communities," Rodriguez said.
It's not Democrats and the President who have consistantly killed efforts to reform our immigration laws - it's Republicans and conservative activists.
But you do have to admire how Rodriguez, like Land, is openly admitting that his support for immigration reform is frankly part of an effort to lure Hispanics into the conservative movement:
The Republican Party "stands at the brink of repeating history by completing a wall, not between Mexico and the United States but between Hispanic Americans and the conservative movement. How ironic," he said. "The group that [President Ronald] Reagan believed would invigorate the Republican Party via its traditional values of God, family and country today potentially stands rejected by the party of Reagan. The family values party is alienating the most pro-life, pro-family constituency in America. Go figure."
