• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • United Church of Christ News
  • UCC minister: It’s go time. Citizenship now!

UCC minister: It’s go time. Citizenship now!

by Justo Gonzalez | published on Oct 11, 2021

A young woman calls on Congress to keep families together and pass a pathway to citizenship for immigrants brought to the United States as children.

How do you define home, your casa? We talk about casa and familia, family, on a regular basis but what does it really mean for you and in your ministries?

Stuart saw his parents deported as a teenager. His family was whisked away, and he was left in this country as a kid. He is a United States citizen. We talk about keeping families together, but our country deports mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and other loved ones. We cannot allow the systematic deportation of people who place their lives at risk to avoid gangs, guns, narcotics traffickers, rape, sexual assault and forced prostitution. 

That’s why I was part of a Michigan delegation that went to lobby Congress and march with advocates from 35 other states in support of the “We are Home” campaign.

An image from the “We are Home” campaign

The “Estamos en Casa” coalition is made of grassroots, regional and national organizations committed to securing a pathway for citizenship now, during this historic budget reconciliation process. Simply put, we can’t wait. My community can’t wait. Our Black, Brown, Asian, Haitian, and Middle Eastern communities can’t wait. Our LGBTQIA+ global siblings can’t wait. Dreamers can’t wait. Asylum seekers can’t wait. Trafficked immigrants and those threatened daily by physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse can’t wait. Our elected officials promise us the world and under-deliver. The hopes, dreams and expectations of millions of people can no longer wait. 

We, advocates and activists from Michigan United, the West Michigan Immigrant Coalition, Plymouth United Church of Christ in Grand Rapids, United Farm Workers and Ministerios Rios de Agua Viva went to Washington two weeks ago to demand justice for immigrants. As a pastor, a long-term immigrant rights advocate and the founder of two sanctuary congregations, one in Buffalo, N.Y., at Pilgrim-St. Lukes, and the other in Grand Rapids, Mich., housed at Ministerios Rios de Agua Viva (Joy Like a River UCC), I believe that as advocates and leaders, we cannot stand for or support in any way unelected employees of the Senate to dictate to our elected officials what goes into this reconciliation process. Basta ya! Enough is enough.  

Michigan advocates lobby their senators to take action to provide documented status to immigrants as part of the budget reconciliation process.

On Oct. 6, we spoke out in front of Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s Grand Rapids office and at Sen. Gary Peters’ office in Detroit. This is go time! No more political games! We demand action! 

The Rev. Justo Gonzalez lobbying in Grand Rapids for immigrant rights.
Photo by Andres Abreu, El Vocero, Grand Rapids.

As speaker and one of the planners of the event, I reminded the broader community that my faith in the Still Speaking, Still Acting God, impels me and us to see and affirm the beauty of all of God’s people.  

The Rev. Rachael Bahr, pastor of Plymouth UCC, said, “I spent a challenging weekend with my father-in-law, hearing him denigrate immigrants and their children as being the wrong sort of people who come to this country and have it far too easy. At the same time, I continued to work alongside a beloved church member who has been working hard and trying to move her immigration status and citizenship further through the governmental systems, facing roadblock after roadblock. 

The Rev. Rachael Bahr, pastor of Plymouth UCC, speaks out in support of immigrant rights in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Oct. 6.
Photo by Andres Abreu, El Vocero Newspaper, Grand Rapids.

“She is a smart, creative, and hardworking person and we desperately need people like her here in Michigan and across our country,” Bahr continued. “We would be poorer as a nation without her among us.” 

Our call, my call, is to welcome our global siblings and provide them the documented status that they desire. They are as American as were our great grandmothers and grandfathers.  

The Rev. Justo Gonzalez II has collaborated with global siblings most of his 31 years of ordained ministry. He is a member of Plymouth UCC and the Grand West Association of the Michigan Conference.

Categories: United Church of Christ News

Get the UCC in your inbox!

Sign up for the weekly UCC News Digest

Privacy Policy
 
 

Related News

United Church of Christ News

Dorhauer’s ‘100 Days of Gratitude’ to celebrate his tenure as GMP

General Minister and President-elect John Dorhauer celebrates his new call with his wife Mimi...

Read More
United Church of Christ News

New ONA director, Global Ministries exec among recent hires

The new year has seen many new staff settling in and joining the United Church of Christ’s...

Read More
United Church of Christ News

Synod is asked to affirm commitment to transgender, nonbinary dignity amid legislative attacks

The 2023 General Synod of the United Church of Christ will consider 16 resolutions and several...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC CrestUCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative