J.D. Long-Garía/CATHOLIC SUN
More than 100 people turned out to urge Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a bill recently passed by the Legislature, which would make being in the United States illegally a crime. .
By J.D. Long-García | April 22, 2010 | The Catholic Sun
Immigration rights advocates prayed for the veto of legislation that would make it a crime to be in the United States illegally April 21 at the Arizona State Capitol.
The bill would also require police to make a “reasonable attempt” to determine legal status during “any lawful contact.” The Arizona Legislature sent the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer April 19.
Some 100 Catholics and Protestants — anticipating the governor’s decision to either sign or veto the bill — joined together for a rosary and a chaplet of divine mercy on the state capitol lawn.
“With Our Lady’s intercession, prayer can change the hearts of people,” said Rosie Villegas-Smith of Voces Por La Vida, a pro-life group serving Hispanic mothers.
“People who vote for these initiatives call themselves pro-life,” she said. “But these anti-immigrant laws oppress families and have dire consequences on the unborn.”
Villegas-Smith, who led the prayers, also works with Rachel’s Vineyard, a retreat for post-abortive parents. She estimated that 40 percent of women at a recent Spanish-language retreat decided to have abortions because of legal status issues — their own, their husband’s or their kids’.
“The Holy Spirit leads us to what is just and what is right,” said Bishop Minerva Carcaño of the Desert Southwest Conference of the United Methodist Church, who participated in the prayer event.
“We have a long road ahead of us with immigration reform and dealing with the way immigrants are treated in this state is a priority,” she said. “Prayer helps us lift our prophetic voices. We must be in constant prayer.”
Bishop Carcaño said Christian leaders are reporting fear among their congregations throughout the state. Families, already taxed by the weak economy, will be even more terrified if this bill is signed, she said.
“That’s wrong,” Bishop Carcaño said. “Our elected officials are charged with bringing peace and prosperity to their constituents. This bill does the opposite, fomenting old prejudices and racism. That’s destructive.”
She expressed some hope that Brewer would veto the bill.
Rosa Bravo, a parishioner at St. John Vianney in Goodyear, said immigrants in her neighborhood are among those living in fear.
“With this law, we’re going to be treated like animals because we’re brown,” she said. “Families are suffering. They live in terror. When they leave their house, they don’t know if they’ll make it home.”
Sylvia Benitez, a parishioner at St. Agnes, said adults aren’t the only ones living in the shadow of fear.
“Children born here are afraid they’ll be losing their parents,” she explained. “Some children are afraid to go to school because they’re afraid their parents will be gone when they get back.”
If signed, the new law would only exacerbate such fears, she said.
Legislators “are looking at how this is good for their career,” said Kevin Starrs, who serves undocumented immigrants as part of his prison outreach for the Phoenix Diocese. A Rasmussen poll indicates that 70 percent of Arizonans support the bill.
The bill comes on the heels of the slaying of a southern Arizona rancher whom police say was the victim of Mexican drug dealers. Many who support SB 1070 say if the federal government refuses to secure the border, then measures like the bill before Gov. Brewer will be enacted by other states
Starrs said the bill — which ostensibly seeks to crack down on crime — would ultimately lead to more wrongdoing.
“If there’s a crime, you’re not going to call,” he said. “It puts hundreds of thousands of people underground. You can’t be a witness; you can’t call the police. I’m hearing concern about this bill from across the country.”
Earlier this week, the Arizona Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s three dioceses, called on Brewer to veto the “problematic, anti-immigrant bill.”
“While finding meaningful solutions to immigration issues is a worthwhile endeavor, SB 1070 raises many serious concerns and could have a potentially negative impact on our great state,” the conference said in a statement released April 19.
The bill is “not a legitimate solution to solving serious crimes at the border, or anywhere else, and actually may inadvertently reduce public safety,” it reads.
