Evangelical leaders are calling on President Barack Obama and Congress to move quickly in 2013 in order to reform the US immigration laws. Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land, who is the Ethics $ Religious Liberty Commission, has joined with nine leaders from the Evangelical Reform Table in asking Obama, plus Senate and House of Representative leaders to meet with them early next year in order to discuss finding a bipartisan resolution to what remains a highly controversial issue.
“It’s past time for us as a nation to deal with this vexing and divisive issue,” Land insists. “The foundation and structure for fair, just and comprehensive reform legislation is there and needs to be embraced by both parties for the good of the country.”
The IET leaders have asked Obama to meet with a number of their representatives at some point in the first 92 days of his second term and have asked for a similar meeting with congressional leaders at some point during the first 92 days of their next session. Ninety-two days was chosen because 92 times is the amount that “ger,” the Hebrew word for immigrant, appears in the Bible.
The EIT leaders have again called for legislation that respects the dignity of all individuals, safeguards the unity of the immediate family, guarantees the security of national borders, ensures fairness to taxpayers, respects the rule of law, and starts a path to be taken for legal status and/or US citizenship for people who qualify and who desire to become permanent residents.