Credit Where Credit Is Due: Evangelicals Push For Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Rodriguez heads the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and, along with a number of other organizations, including the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the National Association of Evangelicals, Sojourners and Focus on the Family, have created a coalition called the Evangelical Immigration Table.

The fact that Sojourners, led by well-known progressive Jim Wallis, an adviser to President Obama, is a part of this coalition means that it is not just a stalking horse for conservative ideology. Another leader is David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World, which is a non-partisan Christian organization aimed at ending hunger in the U.S. and worldwide. This coalition is impressive in its breadth.

The Evangelical Immigration Table has published a statement of principles on immigration reform, calling for a bipartisan solution that:

   
    Respects the God-given dignity of every person
    Protects the unity of the immediate family
    Respects the rule of law
    Guarantees secure national borders
    Ensures fairness to taxpayers
    Establishes a path toward legal status and/or citizenship for those who qualify and
          who wish to become permanent residents