Strangers No More in America

America is touted as a nation of immigrants, a place where honest, hardworking people find life, liberty and pursue happiness.

Frequently missed are stories of the struggles past immigrants endured to gain acceptance. Chances are, your family, as well as mine, has such stories to tell.

Unfortunately, that struggle continues today with some 30 million immigrants deprived of the right to apply for citizenship. Often exploited by employers, who know the workers lack legal status, America's newest class of immigrants is suffering.

On Labor Day, in congregations around the country, focus has been placed on the plight of today's immigrants. As part of the Interfaith Worker Justice's "Labor in the Pulpits" program, religious leaders in synagogues, mosques and churches have focused on immigrants and the need for a change in hearts, minds and immigration policy in America.

There is a spiritual imperative to deal justly with immigrants, or strangers, found in scripture. The Bible, chapter 19, verses 33 and 34 in the book of Leviticus, offers this admonition:

"When a stranger resides with you in the land, you shall not wrong him or her. The stranger who resides with you shall be as one of your citizens; you shall love that person as you love yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

Though treated as strangers, immigrants work, pay taxes and dream of acceptance in our society. They add to the richness of our culture, often doing jobs that are unwanted by others, following in the footsteps of those who came to these shores before them.

The manner in which strangers are treated says a great deal about the moral and spiritual fiber of a nation.

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, believers are instructed to treat strangers well and to do justice. Those scriptural injunctions are applicable today in a world where capital travels between borders much more easily than people and where recognition of common humanity often is lacking.

In addition, these immigrants are vital members of our community: They work in our homes, tend our lawns, labor in factories that produce our clothing, pick our produce and care for our children. They already are part of lives, but lack the recognition and respect to enable them to live dignified lives.

Immigrants give more to the U.S. economy and government services than they take or use, adding about $10 billion each year to the economy.

A population survey for 2002 found that nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population is foreign-born. In reality, they are not strangers; they are our neighbors, co-workers and friends.

Yet without so-called legal status, these workers are open to exploitation, at times having to endure employers who threaten to call immigration officials if a word is uttered about working conditions, union membership, hours or insufficient pay.

Immigrant workers employed full-time are nearly twice as likely to make less than $20,000 a year, when compared to those born in the U.S. A couple of thoughts for giving life to Leviticus and to the message of this Labor Day:

First, we can advocate for the re-working of our immigration laws to embrace the strangers in our midst.

Second, we can bring immigrants out of the shadows through the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride that will shed light on those whose struggles often are hidden from the rest of us.

Taking a lesson from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, labor, immigrant groups and their allies will crisscross the country for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in late September. They will journey to Washington, D.C., and lobby Congress before gathering for an Oct. 4 rally in New York. Buses will depart from Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Boston.

The buses will be filled with faith leaders, immigrants, activists and trade unionists.

The buses also will be filled with hope that we can live together as one community and as a nation that has no strangers.

Evely Laser Shlensky is a member of the board of the Interfaith Worker Justice, located in Chicago. She is a member and past chairperson of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.