The Wisconsin Council of Churches is calling on Congress to approve comprehensive immigration reform. “We have failed to put out the welcome mat, and make immigrants feel like we want them here,” said Rabbi Dena Feingold with Kenosha’s Beth Hillel Temple. “We have made the path to citizenship so arduous and so complicated that many of the immigrants in our midst feel hopeless about their future,”
Jeff Barrow, Bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Church in America, said many immigrants simply come to America for a better life. “The conditions are so brutal, that they have nowhere else to go, and so to risk their lives by coming here illegally is for them the best thing they can do for their families,” Barrow said.
The U.S. Senate is expected to debate an immigration reform bill soon, with the House taking it up this summer. The council said reform needs to value family unity, a path to citizenship, due process and prudent border security.
Tom Karkow, WRJN