Interfaith Leaders Call for Immigration Reform

March 2, 2006

Source: Catholic Online

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=18902

On March 2, 2006 Catholic Online reported, "In an interfaith press event held March 1, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington called upon President Bush and Congress to work together toward the enactment of comprehensive immigration reform... Cardinal McCarrick was joined by several other interfaith leaders, including Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr., president and chief executive officer of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Rabbi Scott Sperling, director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Mid-Atlantic Council; and Rev. Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ. In his statement, Cardinal McCarrick acknowledged that immigration... [is] a humanitarian issue that 'impacts the basic dignity and life of the person... It is because of this impact on basic human dignity and human life that we believe immigration is, first and foremost, a moral issue'... Cardinal McCarrick called for the adoption of principles included in the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Control Act (S. 1033, H.R. 2330) of 2005 as well as several other immigration bills now pending before the U.S. Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to take up immigration legislation March 2. He noted that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 'strongly opposes H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Act of 2005,' which was passed by the U.S. House in December."