Advocates for immigration reform have been trying a number of different techniques to try to get Congress to move on the issue, but one group that is in favor of the country’s broken immigration system has decided to try a decidedly more unorthodox approach – prayer.
Radio commercials that urge people to pray for House Speaker John Boehner to begin leading the charge to have a bill for comprehensive immigration reform passed through Congress are to start airing thanks to a group of Evangelical churches. Christian and news radio stations in some of the country’s biggest markets, including Washington DC, will soon begin broadcasting the adverts, which emphasize how fixing the nation’s broken immigration system is a moral necessity.
The Evangelical Immigration Table, which is a coalition of around a dozen Christian churches and organizations, has spent over a million dollars this year already on adverts that promote their message, the Washington Post says. This newest effort is yet another attempt to try to push Congress into passing broad immigration reform legislation that would include offering a pathway to US citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants already living in the country.
“Our immigration system is broken and it is hurting everyone,” says the Durham Christian Assembly Church’s senior pastor, Dub Karriker. “Families are separated, employers can’t find the workers they need, and the undocumented who want to get right with the law are told to get in a line that doesn’t exist.”