This post has been a long time coming—and today's a good day. In case you haven’t seen the news, the Associated press is reporting that Los Angeles' immigration demonstration numbered 500,000—the largest by far of a fair number of protests occurring nationwide over the last few weeks. (See this AP photo of the LA protest.) People are turning out in droves to protest HR 4437, a bill passed in the U.S. House and now in the Senate, which would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. In addition, the bill potentially makes it a felony to aid undocumented immigrants by providing shelter, food or care—which would have major impacts on religious and church organizations. (See here for background on HR 4437 and its implications for both immigrants and the private and religious organizations that help them.)It has been something else watching these demonstrations pop up all over the country over the last few weeks. The sheer numbers and publicity are moving the dialogue about Christian responsibility and immigration from the arena of Christian leaders into the living rooms of us everyday Christians. As this blog has said before, this is one dialogue we really must have.
And it looks like there will be a lot more opportunity in the coming weeks as the AP is also reporting that this may be only the beginning when it comes to the protests: “The demonstrations are expected to culminate April 10 in a ‘National Day of Action’ organized by labor, immigration, civil rights and religious groups."
(Image from a protest against HR447 on March 8, 2006, taken by djtansey at flickr)