By Rev. David Moyer
Conference Minister, Wisconsin Conference, United Church of Christ
May 27, 2010
 
Two weeks ago on a Friday night we had a new refrigerator delivered.  I was already grumbling about the late delivery time—7:15, since it had been a long week, and I didn’t want to have to deal with it that late on a Friday.  The delivery men showed up at 7:30.  They were as friendly as could be, though only one could speak English; Spanish being their first language.
 
They hauled out the old unit then found they couldn’t get the new one in, and ended up having to take the front door off, while one of them balanced the refrigerator on the top step of the porch.  As the lead delivery man did the necessary installation of the water line for ice, etc. I just said to him, “Long day, huh?”  He said it had been. 

He had started early in the morning from his home in Racine and had driven to Janesville to pick up his loaded truck.  They had then made 20 deliveries, and it was now nearly 8:00, and we were the last.  He still had to take the truck back to Janesville, pick up his car and then drive back to Racine to join his family for Friday evening.  He told me he had been working such a schedule on 6 days a week for the past three months.  That kind of put my grumbling and my hours into perspective.
 
After they left I told Ann to hold me back for the next few days if anyone even mentioned illegal immigration or support of the Arizona law authorizing law enforcement to pick up people they “suspect” of being in this country illegally.  I told her I might show a violent side that doesn’t show very often. 

All I could think of was this young man, driving back to Racine at nearly 9:00 at night, after a 15 hour day of hard work, only wanting a late dinner and a chance to see his kids before they went to bed, and him being stopped, because he fit some “profile” and might be here without proper papers.  I have little doubt that he is here completely legally, but just to be stopped because he was “DWH”, “driving while Hispanic”, was enough to make me crazy.
 
Last year when we were in Phoenix we took our daughter and a friend with us and drove to San Diego.  The route runs right along the Mexican border.  On the way out we passed through three rolling immigration checks and were just passed through. 

On the way back we were stopped and our daughter’s friend was taken out of our car, because he didn’t have papers.  We sat in the hot desert for two hours on a Sunday evening while he tried to get his attorney to fax paper work of an application he had for some variety of legal status. 

He has been in this country for 10 years and held supervisory jobs, owned property and cars, paid taxes and been, for all we can tell, a good and productive member of society.  If we had been stopped this year, and if he couldn’t have located his attorney in Phoenix, we could also have been detained as “harboring” an illegal person.
 
I was struck by an irony last year when friends in our partner church in Germany wanted to take me on a Sunday afternoon to see a church in Poland.  We got on the autobahn and drove at 150 KPH right across the border.  No control whatsoever.  Think back 20 years and the level of control and the limits.  Now, no controls, no visa, nothing.
 
We once celebrated and bragged of our open borders, especially with Canada.  Now, the last time I went to Canada, it was the most extensive border control procedure I have ever encountered.  We had to park our car, go inside, answer questions, show passports, etc.  To the south we’re now building a wall/fence with no sense of irony about how we looked upon Europe from 1945 to 1989.  We spoke with disdain of the Iron Curtain, and we’re rightly criticizing the Israelis for building their wall, but we are now hearing cries to shut down our borders.
 
I won’t minimize immigration as an issue.  I also admit that I believe the first step is some kind of amnesty, that may involve reasonable consequences (but surely not going back for 10 years before re-applying) and which would give those who are already here and essential and hard-working members of society a legal status.
 
Many are calling for a boycott of Arizona.  I’m not much for boycotts, but perhaps that is warranted in this case.  But, while we’re talking about boycotts, I would ask those with the other perspective on this issue, to please also alter their practices, in order to show their support for these increasing restrictions.  Please don’t eat vegetables or fruit.  Make sure that the only milk you buy comes from a single family, small herd dairy operation and check on who processes it as well.  And, for goodness sake, don’t stay in a hotel.  It also would appear that it would be a good idea to rent a truck and go pick up your own new refrigerator.
 
I also hope we will all search our hearts for the racial attitudes that do, no matter how much we protest, shape perspectives on this issue. Most importantly, as Christians, I trust that we will turn first to Galatians 3:28 and I Peter 2:10 and daily read these texts:
 
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Once you (emphasis mine) were no people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.