SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Rev. Dr. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, issues the following statement following news that Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) are co-sponsoring the bipartisan DREAM Act, which would offer legal solutions for certain young, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally:
“I am greatly encouraged by the bipartisan DREAM Act introduced in the Senate this week and I applaud its co-sponsors, Sen. Graham and Sen. Durbin for their leadership. The DREAM Act is precisely the type of legislation that we at the NHCLC have been advocating on behalf of for years. Both as Hispanic-Americans and as Christians, the forcible deportation of our young people and the resulting trauma of separating families, is simply unacceptable. It is an affront to the sanctity of life and to the sacredness of the family structure. As the Scriptures say, ‘What God has joined together, let no one separate.’ This must include our children.
“We are grateful to both President Obama and President Trump for first signing and then continuing DACA, but with the impending legal challenge threatened by certain states, its survival is in serious jeopardy. We need better, more permanent laws, not executive orders vulnerable to legal challenges. If passed, the DREAM Act has the potential to permanently protect God fearing, hard working families from being separated. These children are part of our communities, our families and neighborhoods. Most have little to no memory of their country of origin and so many of them represent the very best of America. May God grant our political leaders the moral courage to pass this critical piece of legislation.”
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Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. He has been named by CNN and Fox News as “the leader of the Hispanic Evangelical movement” and TIME Magazine nominated him among the 100 most influential leaders in America.
NHCLC/CONEL is the world’s largest Hispanic Christian organization. It serves as a representative voice for the more than 100 million Hispanic Evangelicals assembled in over 40,000 U.S. churches and another 500,000 congregations spread throughout the Spanish-speaking diaspora.
Website | www.nhclc.org
