Statement on Faith Traditions and Immigration Policy: A Jewish Perspective Senate Judiciary..

I address you, respectfully, as a patriotic American and a faithful Jew, the son of a refugee and a first-generation American. This statement is written for “the record,” though I and devout Catholic and Protestant thinkers – also knowledgeable in the field of immigration policy – should have been given the opportunity to testify before the Subcommittee at the hearings on Thursday, October 8.

Thus I begin my statement with a protest. You have invited only representatives of faith groups that support open-borders immigration, amnesty, and “comprehensive immigration reform,” policies profoundly unpopular with the American people and which divide people of faith. By permitting only one side to address you in a great national debate, you have done a profound disservice to the American people as they seek to respond to immigration policy through influencing the judgment of their representatives. You have done yourselves a disservice as well by prohibiting the possibility of being educated by a different point of view.

Silencing opposing voices through prior censorship is un-American, representing a profoundly troubling attitude toward freedom of expression and pluralism, cornerstones of our republic.

Finally, and most disturbing to people of faith, you have wittingly or unwittingly demonstrated disrespect toward our Judeo-Christian heritage which does not identify God with narrow partisanship or the specifics of public policy. People of faith – whether Christian or Jewish – regard such a narrow conception of the Almighty as blasphemous, as taking the name of the Lord in vain. God is not a Democrat or Republican, nor even an Independent. God is not a liberal or a conservative. All our traditions understand God and God’s plan for humankind as ineffable. Neither Christianity nor Judaism has “a position” on what constitutes the best immigration policy for America in the 21st century. Faithful Christians and Jews have different, opposing views – and each can call on their religious traditions to make their case. By inviting only people of faith that take one side on the immigration debate, you have, in essence, identified those people as the “Party of God.”

It is an open secret that the vast majority of American Catholics dissent from the pastoral letters and statements of the Church hierarchy, but it is representatives of the hierarchy who will speak at your hearing. Indeed, within virtually any demographic one might name, the opinions of elites (often self-appointed) differ profoundly from those of ordinary citizens. It is also true that the politically correct Jewish Establishment cannot claim to speak in the name of Americans who are Jews with any credibility. The fraudulence of their mandate was evidenced by the disastrous conclusion of a much-publicized Jewish Establishment campaign called “Progress by Pesach” (Hebrew for Passover) in support of amnesty and “comprehensive immigration reform.” Backed by some 26 Jewish organizations, including the leadership of the Conservative and Reform religious movements – a group claiming to speak for some two million American Jews – its goal was the presentation of a monster petition to members of Congress attesting to the extent of Jewish support for open-borders. They received a mere 3,000 signatures, and of this infinitesimal end product, many signatures were duplicates and many fraudulent.

I have addressed more Jewish audiences on immigration policy – whether in houses of worship or before local chapters of national Jewish organizations – than any other living American. I have spoken to some 200 Jewish audiences over the past five years. On every occasion, support for my opposition to “comprehensive immigration reform” receives support from some 75-90 percent of the audience. This evidence should not be dismissed as merely anecdotal. The only conflicting “evidence” is a transparent “push-poll” conducted by the American Jewish Committee whose findings are meaningless.

read the whole article and the statement which is from 2009. Really well done.

The actual statement with the meat in it is at the site and not in these excerpts.

Good piece.

Immigration policy should always, first foremost and always serve the interests of citizens.

What the government will never do is allow ordinary citizens to have a voice in what that policy should be, they will never allow them to decide what the numbers of immigrants should be. They will not debate policy in public where the public can even hear the debate, its hard even to get accurate information on what the true policies and numbers are.

I can’t think of any country on earth whose policies toward especially illegal immigration are as self-destructive as ours are, and these policies aren’t even open for discussion as far as they are concerned.

We have all been taught our whole lives to value the immigrant, and we do. But in what numbers? They’ll never tell you outright what the numbers are, and they will never explain why that number and not some other, or how they arrived at it.

When the church states that people have the right not to migrate; that is, they should be able to live freely in their countries of birth. However, when this is impossible, whether due to extreme poverty or persecution, the church says they have a right to migrate, and nations have a duty to receive them.Even with over 25 million Americans unemployed under employed. They want to extend unemployment after giving over 2 years of benefits. There is over 47 million on food stamps, the country is broke.It is about time the church direct their attention to these countries remind them what their moral obligations and responsibilities are.The church needs to find a new country for the people who need to leave..This country is full and we are bursting apart.

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