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Religious leaders, congressman spar over immigration reform ethics
While many religious activists hold generally conservative views, there is one issue that is typically associated with liberals that has garnered strong support from that demographic: immigration reform.
Religious leaders recently sparred with lawmakers at a congressional hearing on whether there is a moral imperative to enact immigration reform, with each side quoting scripture to try to get its point across, according to the Miami Herald.
Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, cited Leviticus 19:34 and Hebrews 13:2, which says there is a responsibility to “to care for the ‘strangers’ who reside in our land.”
Representative Lamar Smith of Texas countered with Romans 13:1-7, “Let every person be subject to governing authorities.”
Despite the disagreement, the two sides agreed that the immigration system currently in place is not working and that the federal government has not lived up to its responsibility to handle immigration.
Regardless of immigration reform, foreign nationals can earn U.S. green cards if they participate in the EB-5 visa program. If foreigners invest $1 million (or in some areas $500,000) in an American business and that investment creates 10 jobs they become green card eligible.