The UCC's Immigration Coordination Committee proposes the following principles to guide comprehensive immigration reform.

As Christians we are called to love our neighbors and provide hospitality to strangers. “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” Leviticus 19:33-34

Therefore we call for comprehensive immigration reform legislation to establish a safe and humane immigration system, consistent with our values, that:

• creates a process for undocumented immigrants to earn legal status and eventual citizenship;

• upholds family unity as a priority of immigration policies;

• protects immigrant and native-born workers in their workplaces;

• aligns border and internal enforcement policies with humanitarian values and due process protections

• provides every detainee with access to their attorney, family, and faith leader, and ensures humane treatment in accord with state, federal, and international law;  and

• allows undocumented young adults who grew up in this country to work, pay in-state tuition for higher education, and join the military, and be eligible for legal status and eventual citizenship (the DREAM Act).

We also call for international policy reforms to alleviate the hardships that make emigration necessary.

• Cancel onerous and excessive debt held by poor countries.

• Renegotiate trade and investment treaties, starting with the North American Free Trade Agreement. 

In addition, the General Synod has repeatedly called for changes in our policies and treatment of immigrants including:

• more humane border policies and the end of unjust treatment and harassment of immigrants both at the border and throughout the country, 

• the development of international programs and policies to alleviate poverty and the oft-accompanying sense of desperation which propels people to emigrate; and

• policies that allow immigrant workers and their families to live and work in a safe, legal, orderly and humane manner.

See the resolutions posted at http://www.ucc.org/justice/immigration/resolutions.html  (scroll down)

Our primary partner in this work is the Interfaith Immigration Coalition http://www.interfaithimmigration.org/