Success!

Our meeting with Representative Fred Upton this past Wednesday exceeded our expectations. We came well-prepared with a diverse group of pastors, immigrant leaders, greenhouse owners, homeless people, and lay leaders from our churches. Rep. Upton showed up on time with one of his top aids, Mark Ratner. Pastor Ericka Parkinson-Kilbourne got the agenda moving very quickly after Upton’s arrival and laid out clearly and succinctly the Biblical lens through which we look at policies. She highlighted how Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 command us to weigh every policy by how it will affect the most vulnerable like immigrants, homeless people, and the imprisoned.

Following Pastor Ericka’s presentation we drove our points home about immigration reform with testimony from our diverse coalition. Ken Nieboer from the Growing Place greenhouse shared his experience with a worker from his business whose life and family was thrown into limbo because of the obstacles created by our current immigration system. Steve Zylstra, founder of a local greenhouse owners association and former head of the statewide greenhouse owners’ association, spoke about the need for comprehensive immigration reform to create a stable workforce and for an end to initiatives that would try to turn business owners like him into immigration agents charged with verifying the documents of prospective workers. Sonia Roman, the wife of Pastor Martin Roman of MOP member church Iglesia Evangélica Misionera el “Yo Soy” gave statistics and a personal story explaining just how out-of-date our immigration system is. Following her testimony, Javier Ballesteros, a leader from our workers’ center, presented some awful examples of worker exploitation he had witnessed and made a strong case for increased worker protections. Rep. Upton tried to use some of his own positive experiences visiting factories as evidence that the government is doing a good job protecting workers. Without batting an eye, Javier replied, “That’s because they know you are coming.” Seeing Javier’s point, Upton conceded and asked MOP to bring him more stories about workers being exploited so that he could be more informed about this issue.

As the result of our testimony, use of statistics, and negotiating handled primarily by Larry Provancher and Pastor Ericka Parkinson-Kilbourne and Javier Ballesteros, Upton agree to support the following principles for immigration reform. 1. A path to citizenship for all those already in the country who will pay back taxes, learn English, have no criminal record and can show a stable work history 2. Speeding up the family reunification process through increasing the number of visas available 3. Ensuring full workers rights for immigrants who will come in the future based on the needs of our economy.

Many thanks to all of you who have been supporting MOP’s immigration campaign and showed up to our action on the 21st of January which helped get us this meeting and to our leaders who did such a good job getting prepared for this meeting and then making it happen. Thanks are also due to the One who still turns the hearts of those in power and who passionately loves us and calls us forth to even greater acts of justice.