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Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table Participants Book is a seven-session curriculum for congregations that explores the relationship between the way we eat and the way we live, published by the Presbyterian Hunger Program. The study uses scripture, prayer and stories from the local and global community to explore five key aspects of our relationship with food:
Immigrants, documented and undocumented, impact the labor market in the US and the US labor market impacts the rates of immigration which affect the price of goods and services in the US. The taxes that immigrants pay contribute to the overall economy of the US including social programs. Further, immigrants are more likely than US born individuals to open their own businesses and this supports US job creation. Many immigrants are highly skilled and bring technical expertise that furthers US scientific and technological innovations.
Non-profit organizations and faith based groups across the country help organize efforts to bring about change in US immigration laws, offer direct services to immigrants, and provide resources for individuals to undergird their efforts. Immigration is a national issue and requires the support and actions of people everywhere in order to be effective.
The northern and southern borders are the home to millions of people and the port of entry for nearly $830 billion of goods. Additionally over half of the visitors to the US arrive through the use of land ports of entry. While there is a need to protect the interests of the United States, the measures that have been enacted over the last decade have come at great social and economic costs.
Farms rely on immigrant labor to help plant, tend, and harvest the fruits and vegetables that are grown in the US. These are low-paying low skill jobs that historically US citizens have been hesitant to take. To help meet the needs of farmers, the US government has a temporary worker program known as the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program. However, demand far outweighs the availability of these visas. There are three million agricultural jobs that are available each year. Yet in 2007 the Department of State issued 50,791 H-2A visas. The very limited number of visas available for immigrants …
Individuals and families who flee their homes because of persecution, famine, or war are classified by the UN as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). However, if they manage to escape their country and enter another country, they become "refugees" and are protected by international law. These families and individuals often seek shelter in refugee camps where they are required to complete paperwork with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in order to be officially recognized as a refugee. They will have to wait, six years or more, to be resettled after their application is approved. The main countries participating in …
Some 28,700 immigration detainees are in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) every day.1 These detainees are not held at a central location, rather they are housed in a patchwork of some 353 facilities, including jails and private for-profit prisons.2 There has been a rapid increase in the number of detainees in custody at these various sites, an increase of 61% from January 2006 to December 2007.3 While there are laws that are enforceable regarding the treatment of criminal inmates in jails and prisons, there are no such codified guidelines for immigration detainees.
Across the country calls are being made to limit immigration and deport undocumented immigrants based on the erroneous belief that there is a correlation between high levels of immigration and crime. Although, research consistently reveals immigrants are less likely than native-born citizens to commit crimes, the misperception continues. The National Opinion Research Center’s 2000 General Social Survey, asked whether respondents believed "more immigrants cause higher crime rates" and 73% believed that immigration is causally related to more crime.
Immigration laws and enforcement are under the jurisdiction of federal authorities. Congress has the responsibility to create and enforce laws that pertain to the entry and exit of immigrants as well as define the conditions of their employment and protection from discrimination. However, in the recent past congress has chosen not to act on the issue of immigration.