Immigration raids sending the wrong message
Guest Column
THE REV. E. ROY RILEY & RALSTON DEFFENBAUGH
Bertha came to the Lutheran pastor in Weehawken, weeping uncontrollably. She is a single, undocumented woman with a child. Her husband brought her to this country some years ago and abandoned her. Bertha works in a small garment factory in urban northeastern New Jersey, at least she used to until the Department of Homeland Security conducted a raid at her job site. She was the only one who escaped arrest for deportation.

Bertha hid under the floorboards below her work station. That was her emergency preparedness plan, because she has a 9-year-old son, Antony, who is a U.S. citizen, and she lived in constant fear that they might be separated.

The raid ended, but Bertha remained distraught out of her fear for her son.

"If I had been taken away," she cried, "what would have happened to my son, Antony?"

We could say, "Well, Bertha, you should have thought of that before you agreed to come to this country."

In fact, all immigrant parents should have thought of their children's jeopardy before they came here. But for the vast majority of these young immigrant families, that is exactly what they did. They weighed the jeopardy of their children; they wanted more than anything to give their children an adequate home, sufficient food and a good education - a chance for a better life. They counted the cost, and for the sake of their families they mustered the courage to come to this country, where children are believed to be safe.

Increasingly, the federal government is resorting to SWAT-like raids and the widespread jailing of immigrants as a way to enforce our immigration laws and to send a message to lawbreakers. In the past decade, the number of immigrants in prison-like detention has skyrocketed from a few thousand to nearly 30,000 persons on any given day. These harsh practices are having a devastating and counterproductive impact on families, children and communities. Ultimately, these policies are taking us down a path that demeans not only the dignity of those we detain but also our country's values and core identity.

No one knows exactly what will happen to the other employees from Bertha's factory, but many are probably being detained in prison-like environments while awaiting deportation. In New Jersey on any given day, the federal government detains about 1,000 immigrants. Asylum seekers and others have filled the Elizabeth Detention Center, so that county jails such as in Monmouth must be used to hold the overflow.

Hundreds of immigrant families are also detained in facilities in Pennsylvania and Texas. Earlier this year, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service released a report describing the poor conditions in those family facilities and expressing grave concerns about how families, including many with young children, could be detained at all. For example,

the facilities failed to provide adequate prenatal care to several pregnant women and often took days to respond even to emergency situations.

Several government and independent studies have shown that jailing immigrants is costly and ineffective. The federal government now spends more than $1.2 billion annually to detain immigrants at a price of over $100 per day for each person. Other less costly alternatives do exist, but their expansion and development would require a creativity and thoughtfulness that precious few leaders in our government seem to possess.

People in our communities are looking for real leadership on immigration. We need honest, courageous discussion that confronts the difficult questions. How did we lose sight of the fact that we are a nation built almost entirely by immigrant people? How did we lose sight of that most fundamental of our values: the protection of children and families?

The Lutheran Church in New Jersey and throughout this country is deeply engaged in ministry with immigrant people, including hundreds held in detention. From within our congregations, pastors and church members are increasingly asking why the government must detain people who pose no threat to safety or national security. We ask that our government officials reconsider these policies that are transforming us into a nation that needlessly imprisons people who are productive members of our communities.

The Rev. E. Roy Riley is the bishop of the N.J. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Trenton. Ralston Deffenbaugh is president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Baltimore, Md.