Background Information
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Driven by the prospect of economic opportunity and U.S. businesses' voracious need for cheap labor, undocumented immigration is on the rise. Approximately 12 million undocumented people live and work in the United States, trapped by a broken immigration system which creates an under-class of residents who are refused the dignity and civil protections that come with citizenship. Our current immigration system keeps families apart, both through a huge backlog in family-based immigration, as well as through the unjust detention and deportation of immigrant mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. We call for an immediate stop to federal raids that separate parents from their children and create a climate of fear and repression. We recognize that racism has blinded many Americans to what takes place in our own kitchens, workshops, and fields. For our nation to be whole, we must acknowledge that our lives of privilege are supported in thousands of ways by people whose labor is invisible and whose suffering is hidden.
Read Issue Brief: Comprehensive Immigration Reform (PDF) for more information.
Sanctuary
In the 1980s, many Unitarian Universalist congregations were actively involved in the Sanctuary movement. The UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) strongly supported this movement: three General Assemblies of the UUA endorsed sanctuary for refugees (1980, 1984, and 1985), and a 1986 Board Resolution established a Unitarian Universalist Sanctuary Fund to support individuals seeking sanctuary and to aid churches providing sanctuary.
- The 1980 General Assembly resolved to "...urge local
societies and
individuals to support their government's efforts in assisting
refugees; and...[to]...urge local societies to investigate ways to aid
refugees
through programs of sponsorship, language lessons, vocational
training, and
other forms of community support as well as programs of
education and
consciousness raising on the refugee problem for their
members and local
communities." (Refugee Assistance,
1980
General Resolution)
- The 1984 General Assembly "...urge[d] Unitarian Universalists
to
support actively those Unitarian Universalist societies and other religious
communities which offer sanctuary to El Salvadoran and other Central
American
refugees." (Concerning Central American
Refugees,
1984 Action General Resolution)
- The 1985 General Assembly, recognizing that some Unitarian
Universalist congregations "...as an active participatory form of
protest and
witness..." urged UU World to publish a list of UU (Unitarian Universalist)
congregations participating in
the Sanctuary movement, and urged
individual congregations, clusters and
districts to "...give careful
and compassionate consideration to the issue of
sanctuary..."
It also strongly urged
the Social Responsibility Section of
the UUA to:
Gather and disseminate information about sanctuary, including the tradition and current activities of Unitarian Universalist societies and other denominations...To study the initiation and conduct of sanctuary in UU societies and develop relevant materials specifically for the guidance of other UU societies and groups; and...to foster discussion of sanctuary through meetings, seminars, and workshops. (Sanctuary, 1985 Business Resolution)
In 1986, the Board expressed their support for the Sanctuary movement by creating a Unitarian Universalist Sanctuary Fund "for the purpose of supporting sanctuary defendants, sanctuary churches and for the direct support of those in need of sanctuary." (Sanctuary Fund, June 1986 Board Resolution)
A resolution of immediate witness was passed in 1995 for humane treatment of immigrants and in 2006 the General Assembly voted for an Action of Immediate Witness to support immigrant justice. Many among us are immigrants and integral members of and contributors to our communities and our congregations; many of us witness to the impact of the current unjust immigration system on families and communities around us. For these reasons, we Unitarian Universalists join people of many faith traditions in supporting the rights of our brothers and sisters who are recent immigrants to the United States of America.
Most recently, at the 2007 General Assembly, delegates passed an Action of Immediate Witness to Support Immigrant Families—Stop the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Raids that calls for an immediate moratorium of all inhumane raids and resulting deportations.
Now, over twenty-five years later, religious leaders across a broad spectrum of denominations from ten states have come together to begin a New Sanctuary Movement to accompany and protect immigrant families who are facing the violation of their human rights in the form of hatred, workplace discrimination and unjust deportation. The New Sanctuary Movement welcomes religious leaders, congregations and faith-based organizations of all denominations to join in this effort.
Read New Sanctuary Movement (PDF) for more information.
For more information contact socialjustice @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
