Follow MLK's guidance on immigration reform

Follow MLK's guidance on immigration reform
By THE REV. HARVEY CLEMONS JR.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Dec. 3, 2009, 7:41PM

It is nothing new for an African-American minister like me to look at Scripture and perceive that something is amiss in our society. That was Martin Luther King Jr.'s story. King dared to read Scripture and proclaim God gave all people the dignity and intelligence to choose which bus seat was right for them, even in Alabama. King's vision included more than justice for black folk. His vision included all God's children, red and yellow, black and white.

King's vision and struggles are important to remember as serious conversations about immigration reform are again beginning to brew, as indicated by the remarks last month of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at the Center for American Progress. Though the conversation concerning immigration in America is more ancient than King, King's vision provides a helpful tool with which to view the immigration struggle today. Immigration is about human dignity and the nobility of parents of different tribes and nations facing the risk of coming to a foreign land, a land of opportunity, to work for a better tomorrow for their children.

Nearly 18 months ago, a conversation with a Latino brother demanded that I move my understanding of the immigration issue past propaganda and common perception. Spurred by his passion, friends and I gathered with prominent immigration lawyers, leaders from the Greater Houston Partnership and the Latino community to learn how the immigration system was affecting the daily lives of people in our community and the well-being of our community itself.

The perception garnered from the media is often that undocumented immigrants simply go around the open door of the legal immigration system, but that morning I learned how an unworkable immigration system closes the vast majority of legal avenues for those who desire to immigrate legally. The perception from the media is often that immigrants do not pay taxes; that morning I learned undocumented workers pay taxes and to a much greater degree than what they consume in our state, with an estimated $400 million surplus. Also, I did not know undocumented immigrants contributed more than $17 billion to our state's economy, how an enforcement-only policy would cost our economy $651 billion in annual output, or how immigrant parents lived continually under the threat of being separated from their children. For too long, advocates who fear immigrants have acted as the primary molders of our perception concerning immigration, convincing us all too easily that their fears fall in line with reality.

To many, it seems strange that I, an African-American minister from the Fifth Ward, would focus much of my energy and resources to work along with other leaders in our city for immigration reform. Yet I am a Christian and a disciple with the call to see Christ in the humanity of all who suffer. This was the remarkable passion of King. Today, many others and I share this same passion. King saw the world from the perspective of God's love. God's love gave King the courage to work with all God's children so that the foolishness of fear-mongers would not cut the country off from its pursuit of a more perfect union.

Listen not to false prophets who wrap their politics around the fear of the immigrant. It is not a new song they sing. In fact, it is eerily similar to the songs sung not too long ago. They sang that slavery was God's way until that song sounded ridiculous. They altered the song and sang segregation was God's way until that too sounded ridiculous. Now the song of the false prophets paints the immigrant as a threat to, rather than a pillar of, American society; paints undocumented fathers and mothers working from sunrise to sundown as a drain of our nation's resources rather than a reminder of our heroic beginnings; and paints immigrant children as a national burden rather than our nation's blessing.

Napolitano closed her remarks on immigration by stating that immigration is “ingrained in our national character …. But we must modernize our laws for the 21st century so that this vision can endure. This is a task that is critical, that is attainable, and that we are fully committed to fulfilling.” Like in the days of King, we know much of what we need to do. The only question is whether or not we have the courage to continue the noble legacy with which we have been entrusted by working to be the land of opportunity for all people in all positions of life. Please join us at www.houstonimmigrationreform.org.