Glen Peterson invites us to reflect on the possibilities of a just and comprehensive immigration reform in Immigration Reform´s Post-Election Potential, a post on the Sojourners blog.

Clamor por Los Angeles (ClamorxLA) and the Red de Pastores y Líderes Latinos del Sur de California invite you to an evening of intercesion for our new president Barack Obama and his administration, Tuesday, January 20, from 6-9PM. This intercessory service will be held at Iglesia de Restauración located on the corner of Adams and Crenshaw one block south of Interstate 10 in Los Angeles. The service will include worship and intercession. All are invited!

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Red de Pastores y Líderes Latinos del Sur de California

(Southern California Latino Pastors and Leaders Network)

Comprehensive and Humane Immigration Reform

We greet you, President Barack Obama, at the inception of your presidency and pray that the Lord and God, sole creator of faith, justice, liberty, and love of neighbor will be with you during your time leading the United States of America.

The Red de Pastores y Líderes Latinos del Sur de California, representing 1200 churches and close to 150,000 people, asks that one of your principal objectives during the first year of your administration be to promote a comprehensive and humane immigration reform for the millions of undocumented that already live and work in this country. They are a part of our social fabric and contribute with their labor to the growth of this great nation that they admire and respect.

Aware of the commitment you made with our community during your election campaign, we make ours your proposal of working in bipartisan fashion toward objectives like immigration reform.

The whole country has witnessed how raids against the undocumented have sunk hundreds of thousands of families into fear and desolation, breaking them up and deporting the parents of American citizens. This has left these children orphaned all because of the inability of legislators and government to arrive at a viable solution. Therefore, we earnestly request that your administration suspend all raids until comprehensive immigration reform is approved.

We commit ourselves to mobilize our churches and influence our legislators to support your initiative to reform a broken immigration system. We also commit ourselves to intercede before the Creator on behalf of your administration, so that it can effectively address the multiple issues facing the US population.

This last week there have been several news reports related to the Latino evangélico vote. On October 17 we reported the results of a poll that concluded that the majority of Latino evangélico voters will vote for Barak Obama. That same day COMALIC presented a press release in which they questioned the results of the survey and stated that “true” Latino evangélicos would vote for John McCain. They also questioned whether the people behind the poll were truly evangélicos. Another interesting note was Marcos Witt’s declaration of support for Senator McCain. The declaration also mentioned an organization of Latino mega churches that will support McCain.

An interesting commonality of all these reports is that they all mentioned immigration reform as one of the key motivations for the Latino vote. One of the people that supports McCain even said that Latino evangélicos should not allow themselves to be swayed by the promised related to immigration reform. Another mentioned the support that McCain has given to immigration reform as one of the reasons for deciding to support Senator McCain. Therefore, both the people that support Obama as those that support McCain are mentioning the importance of immigration reform.

In California there is also the relationship between Proposition 8 and the Latino vote. All polls indicate that the majority of Latinos are in favor of the proposition and they also plan to vote for Obama. It will be interesting to note whether Latino evangélicos in California follow the same pattern.

Yesterday a survey of Latino “Evangélicos” was formally published. It demonstrated that the majority of Latino “Evangélicos” will be voting for Barak Obama, particularly because of the immigration issue. I invite you to read the full results. http://blogs.impre.com/diarioelectoral/files/2008/10/latino-protestant-poll-report-embargoed-until-10-16-08-at-1-00-pm-edt.pdf

We would like to hear from you on your impressions of the elections and immigration reform. How important should immigration reform be in these elections? What do you think of the way the issue of the indocumentad is being  dealt with in these elections? We invite you to write us.

Pilar Marrero of La Opinión is reporting in her blog (http://blogs.impre.com/diarioelectoral/) that both candidates continue to talk about immigration reform, but principally in Spanish. The only exception has been the Dream Act, a law that would allow young people who grew up in the United States to study in US universities, even if they do not have legal documentation. Both candidates have been in favor of this law in the past though, once again, Senator McCain seems to be changing his perspective. We continue hopeful that both presidential candidates will clearly commit themselves to a just and comprehensive immigration reform.