President Obama’s new executive actions to change immigration policy are unwise and threaten the growing consensus for reform, said the Southern Baptist Convention’s lead ethicist.
Obama announced in prime time Nov. 20 his actions, which include most controversially a plan to protect nearly five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. The president’s use of executive authority came after the Senate approved comprehensive immigration reform in the last Congress but the House of Representatives failed to do.
Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he disagreed with Obama’s unilateral act. Moore noted he supports immigration reform, but the president’s decision is an “unwise and counterproductive move.”
Writing in a post for Time magazine online, Moore said, “It’s because of my support for immigrants and for immigration reform that I think President Obama’s executive actions are the wrong way to go.
“On more than one occasion, I asked President Obama not to turn immigration reform into a red state/blue state issue,” he said. “People across the political spectrum support fixing this system, and it shouldn’t be a partisan wedge issue. I also asked him not to act unilaterally, but to work for consensus through the legislative process.
“My hope is that the Republicans in Congress will not allow the President’s actions here to be a pretext for remaining in the rut of the status quo.”
Obama defended his decision to act without congressional approval, saying he continues “to believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together to pass” a common-sense law. Until then, he has the authority to take steps “that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just,” the president said.
Flaws in both the immigration system and its enforcement have resulted in an estimated 11 to 12 million undocumented immigrants living illegally in the United States.
In 2011, messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix approved a resolution on immigration reform that called for the advancement of the gospel of Jesus while pursuing justice and compassion.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – This story will be updated at BPnews.net. Tom Strode is the Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist Convention’s news service.)