Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

immigration

Philadelphia churches offer sanctuary for immigrants

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by Tim Huber, for Mennonite World Review (reposted by permission)

Two Mennonite churches in Philadelphia have joined a sanctuary movement aiming to support people fearing deportation from the United States.

The congregations are members of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, an organization participating in a nationwide act of civil disobedience responding to inaction on immigration reform. President Obama promised to act on immigration by the end of summer, but has delayed doing so until after November elections.

Philadelphia Praise Center Pastor Aldo Siahaan said his congregation hasn’t received word yet about hosting specific undocumented immigrants, but it is ready.

The New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia gathered with congregational leaders to hold a press conference on September 25. The press conference was held at Philadelphia Praise Center, one of several congregations participating.
The New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia held a press conference announcing the new initiative on September 25. Photo by Bam Tribuwono.

“At Philadelphia Praise Center most of the people are immigrants,” he said. “This is kind of an issue that we deal with every month, even weekly. We know the pain and we know how it feels, so we open our space.”

The congregation has significant numbers of Indonesian, Hispanic and Burmese ethnic groups. Membership at PPC includes many undocumented people.

The church has two Sunday school classrooms that can be used to house families, and the sanctuary could also be employed.

Siahaan said law enforcement officials have not visited the church since its involvement was announced in a September 25 New Sanctuary Movement press conference at the church. In April, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter signed an executive order significantly limiting collaboration between local police and federal immigration authorities.

But word has gotten around.

“Last week, one radio station called me and put me on the air,” Siahaan said. “The announcer tried to be my opposition, and he really opposed the idea of the church opening to the ‘illegal people crossing the border.’ That’s what he was trying to say.

Aldo Siahaan, pastor of Philadelphia Praise Center, being interviewed at the press conference.
Aldo Siahaan, pastor of Philadelphia Praise Center, being interviewed at the press conference.

“I gave my reasons. It was an opportunity to speak to the people who disagree with us.”

Other support

Germantown Mennonite Church became an affiliate member of New Sanctuary Movement after a congregational vote over the summer. Though not planning to host undocumented people at the moment, it is providing support for churches that are.

Russ Mast and Betsy Morgan have attended organization meetings on the congregation’s behalf, and have accompanied families to deportation meetings as both witnesses and emotional supporters.

Germantown’s facilities are also used by a Jewish community group, Tikkun Olam Chavurah, for high holiday services. Like Philadelphia Praise Center, the group has signed on to host undocumented people. However, it is unclear where the Jewish group would provide sanctuary — be it at Germantown, a member’s home or a rented location.

“That hasn’t been something that has been decided yet,” said Germantown facilities administrator Michelle Bruhn.

Celebrating with Aldo and Viviani

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by Lora Steiner, managing editor

Three-and-a-half years after they married, Aldo Siahaan and his wife, Viviani Chandra, are finally living together in Philadelphia. Aldo is the pastor of Philadelphia Praise Center and a LEADership minister with Franconia Mennonite Conference.

Aldo Siahaan and Viviani Chandra
Aldo Siahaan and Viviani Chandra

Aldo and Viviani are both originally from Indonesia, and met in Philadelphia over a decade ago at an Indonesian church in the city. Viviani had come to the United States in 2000, where she applied for asylum on the grounds of religion and race (Viviani is of Chinese ancestry). However, her request was denied and she had to return home.

After Viviani returned, the couple kept in touch, and eventually married in 2010. Knowing that the visa process could take some time, they decided that Viviani would go to Toronto, Canada, where she studied and volunteered at a flower shop. In 2011, Aldo got U.S. citizenship, and they filed for a green card for Viviani. On June 2 of this year, after two-and-a-half years of waiting, the request was approved and Viviani was able to come to the U.S.

The couple is thankful for the prayers and support they received, and assistance from Steve Kriss and Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, which allowed them to build relationships with other Mennonites in Canada.

Gathering with Elizabeth Soto Albrecht

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Elizabeth Soto AlbrechtElizabeth Soto Albrecht, the new moderator of Mennonite Church USA, recently completed a 3-week journey around the United States visiting Mennonite Church USA congregations.  Elizabeth joined pastors and Conference Related Ministry leaders on August 23 to share her learnings and challenges from that journey and hopes for the future of the church and to listen to stories and answer questions from Franconia and Eastern District leaders.

[podcast]http://www.mosaicmennonites.org/media-uploads/mp3/Elizabeth Soto Albrecht.mp3[/podcast]

Blurring the line between immigration and criminal laws

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justneighborslogo-nov-05by Jacob Hanger, summer writing team

I’m currently an intern at Just Neighbors, an organization based in Northern Virginia that provides legal services to low-income immigrants and refugees. We have an extraordinary team of lawyers who are devoted to helping a marginalized subset of the American population that often finds itself voiceless when dealing with our country’s legal system. We have had clients from 116 different countries, and demand for our services is so high that we frequently have to turn away individuals simply because we do not have enough staff to take every case comes looking for help.

At work, I had the opportunity to talk to Allison Ruland-Soulen, Just Neighbor’s Director of Legal Services, and Alex Boston, Just Neighbor’s Executive Director. Our conversation revolved around specific instances of injustice they have encountered during their years practicing immigration law. The following discussion is the result of this conversation.

Immigration law can be particularly unjust when the separation between Immigration Law and Criminal Law blurs. The two systems are sophisticated on their own – unfortunately, when they begin sharing jurisdiction they can sometimes become clumsy. For instance, a few years ago a lawyer at Just Neighbors had a case where a Cuban man was in the process of applying for his green card. The man struggled with alcoholism, and had been caught twice stealing a can of beer from a convenience store. He was denied his green card because of two beers.

What happened was this: in this man’s case, the immigration side of his case was motivated by humanitarian purposes. The fact that he is Cuban makes him a political asylee in the eyes of the American government. On the criminal side, however, he had two crimes of moral turpitude (defined as conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals) on his record. Our criminal law states that only one offense of moral turpitude can be overlooked in the case of Cubans applying for green cards. This law is obviously meant to prevent criminals guilty of much bigger crimes, but in the case of this Cuban, he was denied residency in the U.S. due to the fact that he stole less than $3 dollars of merchandise. The humanitarian aspect of his case was left untouched, but the criminal side trumped it and he now has to live in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. Undoubtedly an injustice.

To explore another instance of injustice, answer this question: what do you think our government prizes more?  Domestic violence or love?  If you said domestic violence, you are right. If a United States citizen marries an undocumented immigrant who crossed the border without going through customs, there is no way for the U.S. citizen to petition for his or her spouse to be granted citizenship. The only way an undocumented immigrant who is married to a U.S. citizen can get status is if he or she has been the victim of domestic violence and reports it to the police. In other words, if a U.S. Citizen marries an undocumented immigrant who crossed the border without going through customs, the immigrant cannot become a U.S. citizen but if the U.S. Citizen abuses the immigrant, the immigrant can get citizenship relatively quickly.  It certainly is an injustice that domestic violence trumps marriage in our system of immigration.

There are more situations where this blurring causes injustice. The takeaway here is that we need to be vigilant about the unintended consequences our laws might have. Ultimately, the people who can change these laws are responsible to U.S. citizens, so if you ever notice a particular injustice at the hand of the law, write your congressman or congresswoman and let them know!

Justice includes compassion and mercy

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Bobby Wibowoby Mikah Ochieng, summer writing team

Compassion rarely surfaces as a topic voiced in the same breath with justice. Justice, after all, is commonly acquainted with the tenets of fairness, that is, what is deserved according to a set of commonly held laws and beliefs. Displaying a form of affectionate compassion, it would seem in most cases, would fly in the face of the outcomes of fairness. Think about helping people that you know, by all accounts, shouldn’t deserve help–isn’t this a breach in the case of enacting justice?

I had this discussion recently with Bobby Wibowo, a 23-year-old man born in Indonesia, who is now living in Philadelphia where we are part of the same church, Philadelphia Praise Center.  Bobby is a paralegal working mostly with immigration law.  He tells me that despite the machine-like tenacity of our legal system, he believes that compassion is an integral component in treating people justly. Bobby believes that people of privilege and power in law-making decisions often need a change in perspective. He asserts that mercy should be a lens by which law-makers interpret the law and arbitrate on people’s immigration cases.

I ask why.

“People in power have their own agendas,” Bobby says, implying a critical disconnect between the worldview and power of the socially influential from the experiences of the socially marginalized or powerless. Bobby’s insight evokes the adage: one cannot possibly hope to understand the “other” without first walking a mile in his or her shoes.

But what would mercy and compassion actually look like in the process of immigration justice and reform? In the case of immigration, Bobby suggests, people who have an order posted against them for deportation should, in certain cases, be excused. Bobby lists some cases where the justice system should reconsider the sentence of those awaiting deportation on the basis of extraordinary circumstances: if a dependent family member is suffering from poor health; if the deportee is strongly involved in the community, is seeking asylum, or if children with U.S. citizenship would be involved in the deportation process. These are all factors that need to be considered in cases that include deportation as an option, Bobby asserts.

Bobby retains a lot of faith in the justice system but he isn’t blind to unjust rulings in cases that pass through his hands at the law office. While translating and organizing documents and files that have gone to trial, he sometimes comes across a case in which he thinks the ruling should have been more lenient. Maybe if the justice system would be more willing to extend a hand of grace, he reflects, and recognize that the human dignity of offending immigrants is equal to that of U.S. citizens, we might reach a justice that more reflects what Christ demonstrated with us.

Incoming moderator launches nationwide tour

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Pastor Byron Pellecer, conference minister Owen Burkholder, Soto Albrecht, and executive director of MC USA Ervin Stutzman answer questions at Iglesia Discipular Anabaptista. Photo by Emily Ralph.

by Emily Ralph

Mennonite Church USA’s incoming moderator Elizabeth Soto Albrecht has begun her journey around the United States to visit MC USA congregations. Soto Albrecht will receive her charge as moderator this Friday, the final day of MC USA’s Phoenix convention.

A native of Puerto Rico, Soto Albrecht is visiting some of the congregations that are not attending MC USA’s convention in Phoenix because of Arizona’s rigorous anti-illegal immigration legislation; she will also drop in at pastors’ breakfasts, home communities, and regional gatherings to listen to the concerns and hopes of the diverse people who make up Mennonite Church USA. Many of these events in the coming week will be streamed live on her website.

After several short trips in May and June to Norristown (Pa.), New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., Soto Albrecht, along with a three-person support team, began the three-week circuit on June 28 with a service of blessing and sending at James Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster (Pa).

During the service, Janet Breneman, Soto Albrecht’s pastor, presented the moderator elect with a photograph of the members of her home congregation, Laurel Street Mennonite Church, as a symbol of their presence with her, sending her and praying for her. Two days later, Soto Albrecht showed that photo to Lindale Mennonite Church (Harrisonburg, Va.) before she preached, saying, “I could not have taken this journey without my home congregation—they have made it possible.”

The sending service concluded with a prayer walk in the west side of Lancaster city. This was the second of what Soto Albrecht hopes to be many prayer walks on her journey; the first was with Philadelphia Praise Center in South Philadelphia. “It is so meaningful when those gathered in the church facility leave the comfort of those four walls and people witness our presence in the neighborhood,” Soto Albrecht observes. “We prayed for the peace of the city and people are more than willing to do that as part of their worship.”

In addition to preaching at Lindale, Soto Albrecht visited Iglesia Discipular Anabaptista (IDA) in Harrisonburg, where she spoke on discipleship and joined Ervin Stutzman, MC USA’s executive director, in a time of Q&A with the congregation.

During that exchange, one member of IDA asked how those who remain behind will be remembered in Phoenix. “On the last night, we’re going on a prayer walk,” Soto Albrecht told him. Thousands of Mennonites will walk the streets, stopping to pray outside the detention center, and finally converge in a park to pray and sing together. “The prayer walk is the peace church making itself visible,” she said.

Both the prayer walk and Soto Albrecht’s keynote address Friday evening will be streamed live on her website.

After their Saturday and Sunday morning visits in Harrisonburg, Soto Albrecht’s team continued on to Chapel Hill, N.C., where members of Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, pastored by Isaac Villegas, made their way through five inches of rain and flooded roads to worship together.

“The ongoing message that I’ve been receiving is people affirming my decision to have this journey, saying, ‘We’re with you. We understand why you decided not to attend Phoenix and to instead have this long journey before arriving at the delegate session on Friday,’” reflects Soto Albrecht. “Those comments affirmed over and over again that this journey is part of God’s plan for us and how important it is that we connect with one another.”

At the same time, however, her thoughts and prayers are also with the delegates gathering in Phoenix and she looks forward to joining them on Friday for the final delegate session and evening worship.

Although only a few days into the journey, Soto Albrecht has already reconnected with many old friends and become acquainted with many new ones. “I’ve found that people are pleasantly surprised that I’m taking time to stop and join smaller churches or larger churches, to listen to them,” she says. “It is especially important to connect with Spanish-speaking congregations, to let them know that I know their struggles and that we are committed as a church to seek justice on their behalf. I’m looking forward to journeying with them in their struggle and to continue to be sent for and by them to Phoenix.”

Delegation offers statement after Arizona visit in consideration of plans for Phoenix 2013 assembly

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August 12–13, 2010

We came to Phoenix as a step in the discernment process as to whether or not the Mennonite Church USA Convention 2013 should be held in Phoenix as planned. Our delegation was committed to listening deeply to each other, to the people with whom we met, and to the Spirit of God. Initially, our specific concern was AZ Senate Bill 1070 and the hostile environment it seems to have created. We are appreciative of the mayor, police chief, members of area faith communities, a representative of BorderLinks, and others who met with us to help us understand the situation and to respond to our questions. We particularly celebrate a meeting at Trinity Mennonite Church, with about 100 persons in attendance from local Mennonite congregations, and the positive way everyone engaged in honest, helpful conversation and discernment.

Together, as a delegation, we arrived at the conclusion that more important than the question of the location of the convention was the question, “How do we as one church walk together in solidarity and unity?” In the following months, further discernment will be needed to make the decision about the location of the 2013 convention.

We offer the following guiding principles for discernment and decision-making whether we go to Phoenix or not.

1. The decision needs to be made in the context of honoring our commitment to be one church in solidarity with each other.

2. We believe that:

a.   The convention will need to help us grow in our commitment to be an anti-racist church.

b.   The convention will need to be structured so we engage local communities around ques-tions raised by current immigration policies and racism present in our church and country.

c.   The convention offers opportunities for education, service and action for youth and adults so that we are further equipped with skills and practices to be one church in solidarity with each other and that we are equipped to engage our local communities with this witness.

In addition, we believe, there is a need to review the purposes of our biennial assemblies and to make changes necessary so that the delegate body is more fully reflective of the membership of the whole of our church.

As a delegation, we desire and are committed to take concrete steps to be one church that lives the biblical vision of the Lamb of God gathering persons from all tribes, nations and ethnic groups into one inclusive church. Thus we recommit ourselves to follow Jesus and to grow as communities of grace, joy and peace so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world.

Delegation members included the following:

Executive Board members:
Elizabeth Soto Albrecht, Lancaster, Pa.; Tina Begay, Bloomfield, N.M.; Ed Diller, moderator, Cincinnati, Ohio; Charlotte Hardt, Spokane, Wash.; Juanita Nuñez, Ocoee, Fla.; Dick Thomas, moderator-elect, Ronks, Pa.

Iglesia Menonita Hispana representatives:
Nicolas Angustia, Brooklyn, N.Y.; David Araujo, Valparaiso, Ind.; Yvonne Díaz, Ligonier, Ind.; Madeline Maldonado, Lehigh Acres, Fla.; Juan Montes, Reedley, Calif.

Intercultural Relations Reference Committee members:
Leslie Francisco III, Hampton, Va.; Kuaying Teng, St. Catharine’s, Ont.

Mennonite Church USA staff:
Glen Guyton, San Antonio, Texas; Susan Mark Landis, Orrville, Ohio; Marty Lehman, Goshen, Ind.; Rachel Swartzendruber Miller, Phoenix, Ariz.; Ervin Stutzman, Harrisonburg, Va.

Racial Healing Task Group representative:
Lloyd Miller, Goshen, Ind.

Other representatives:
Gilberto Flores, Dallas, Texas; Saulo Padilla, Goshen, Ind.

Mennonite Church USA delegation invites prayer for Phoenix visit

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Deuteronomy 24:17-18 (NIV)

17Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.18Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

Purpose of trip

In response to concerns raised by Iglesia Menonita Hispana, Mennonite Church USA’s Executive Board is sending a delegation to Phoenix, Ariz., to witness “on the ground” the effects of Arizona’s new immigration law, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.

Phoenix currently is the location for the denomination’s 2013 convention.Phoenix city government leaders, who have expressed their disappointment with the new legislation, extended the invitation to the delegation to come; the Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau will cover expenses for the trip.

The group will meet with city officials, convention planners, local Hispanic and Mennonite Church USA congregations, and human rights workers who specialize in immigration. Delegation members will gather information about the potential multi-faceted impacts of holding the denomination’s 2013 convention in Phoenix, and will discern options for staying in Phoenix, finding a different location, or canceling the 2013 gathering.

On Friday evening, Mennonite Church USA Phoenix-area churches will join delegation members for a forum on immigration to discuss the issues and guiding principles surrounding the Phoenix 2013 decision.

As Mennonite Church USA contemplates next steps, we are committed to our stated priority of honoring the dignity and value of all Racial/Ethnic people in Mennonite Church USA, ensuring just and equitable access to church resources, positions and information as manifestations of the one new humanity in Christ. As we seek to become an anti-racist church, the dominant group must be accountable to the Racial/Ethnic constituency in decision-making processes. Our delegation will model this accountability. In light of Arizona’s new legislation, living into this priority requires that we find specific ways to honor and support our Latino brothers and sisters and other immigrants who are part of Mennonite Church USA. Our efforts and decisions must be focused on allowing God’s healing and hope to flow through us into the world.

—Glen Guyton, director for constituent resources, Mennonite Church USA