Welcoming the Stranger

Since 1917, AFSC has worked with war refugees and displaced persons, and advocated for the exploited and stateless. It has protested the treatment of Mexicans before the Depression, denounced the Chinese Exclusion Act, helped open doors to Spanish and Jewish refugees, and tried to prevent the uprooting and internment of Japanese Americans in World War II.  

For four decades, we also have worked with immigrant workers and refugees from Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. In 1986, that long experience led our Board of Directors to mandate noncompliance with the provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) that require employers to acquire immigration status documentation for every employee.  

We argued in court that IRCA meant AFSC would have to implement a law that created inequality and violated the inherent dignity of each person, both of which ran counter to our religious principles. Our case did not succeed, and we remain noncompliant with that requirement.

Today, millions of undocumented people struggle to support their families among us. They work for and with us, pay taxes, and contribute to the Social Security system they cannot enjoy. 

In March, I participated, along with many of our staff and volunteers, in a rally in Washington, D.C. The rally protested new attempts to criminalize undocumented people and all those—including clergy, social workers, teachers, lawyers, and medical providers—who help meet their human needs.  

Some of us wore badges reading, “I am a teacher [minister, priest, social worker, doctor, lawyer], not a criminal,” recognizing that, if these provisions become law, we will find ourselves having to be both—ethical servants of our vocations and law-breakers. An estimated twenty thousand people attended that rally.  

As I write, a broad movement is unfolding for fair and comprehensive immigration reform that ultimately would enable the nation’s immigrants to adjust their immigration status. Hundreds of thousands have rallied around the country, and AFSC has helped organize many of these actions. We are at the beginning of what many are calling a new civil rights movement. 

A center of our present work in migration and immigration is rightly called “Project VOICE.” That work begins from the principle, enunciated in the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights, that all human beings have the right to have rights—including the right to earn a living, provide for our families, educate our children, have or earn citizenship, participate in civil society, and help choose our leaders.

We work from the conviction that fences that criminalize aspirations for decent, productive lives do not make for good neighbors, and that temporary worker programs exploit people but welcome no guests. We work to monitor how vulnerable immigrant communities are treated, how public services are or are not provided. We offer legal services and referral support to assure that immigrants’ rights are protected and respected.

In sum, we help immigrant communities organize themselves, to find and give voice to their aspirations and needs, and make their contributions to the common good. 

Paul Lacey is the Chair of the AFSC Board of Directors. 2006