A consortium of Jewish groups is taking action against two controversial immigration bills. The New York-based Jews for Racial and Economic Justice is gathering signatures for an ad opposing two immigration bills, one passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and one under debate in the Senate. The House bill calls for fining, detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, and for penalizing those who help them.
The ad, which will be placed in newspapers across the country next week, calls upon Jews to remember, as they tell the Passover story, the millions of Jewish immigrants who came to America over the past two centuries. The ad reads, in part, “as Jews, we know that immigrants have always enhanced this nation and affirm our belief that immigrants continue to do so today.” It calls for a path to citizenship instead of “proposals that would create an exploitative guest-worker program.”
Signatories so far include Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service; Rabbi David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College; playwright Tony Kushner; and two dozen other Jewish political and cultural figures.
Poster Comment:
Message: Deport Arabs, Import Mexicans.