{"id":18129,"date":"2018-06-13T23:11:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T06:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=18129"},"modified":"2018-06-13T23:19:57","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T06:19:57","slug":"immigration-ministry-this-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/immigration-ministry-this-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Ministry This Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the Rev. Lyda Pierce<\/strong><\/h4>\n

There are about 200 women and men who are new neighbors within the boundaries of our conference. They were brought here by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and reside in the federal prison in SeaTac. These people fled their homes fearing for their lives and arrived at a U.S. border asking for refuge for themselves and their children.<\/p>\n

The legal term for such refuge is asylum\u2014granting someone the right to live in an adopted country because their lives are in danger where they came from. Yet instead of welcome and safety, they had their children taken away and they were locked up in a prison. Their children are probably in another state.<\/p>\n

The Council of Bishops has joined many other faith leaders in decrying this practice<\/a> of separating children from their parents at the border. In the State of Washington, Governor Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson are also protesting, demanding clarification from the federal government.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Paul Ryan just announced that the House of Representatives will discuss immigration bills next week. This is a breakthrough. Until now, internal House regulations have been used to keep immigration bills off the floor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Learn more and educate others<\/strong> with this short overview:<\/p>\n