Faith, Union Leaders Focus Labor Day Services on Immigrant Workers

Chicago – This Labor Day, in hundreds of congregations around the country, focus will be placed on the plight of today’s immigrant workers. As part of the Interfaith Worker Justice “Labor in the Pulpits” program, labor and religious leaders in synagogues, mosques and churches will lift up immigrants and the need for a change in hearts, minds and U.S. immigration policy.

Labor In the Pulpits is an annual celebration of values shared by the faith community and organized labor and draws attention to the struggles of workers. Immigrants and the upcoming Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride are the main focus for Labor Day 2003. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride is modeled after the civil rights Freedom Rides of the 1960s. Busloads of immigrants and their allies will crisscross the country in late September, lobby Congress and conclude with a mass Oct. 4 rally in New York. Buses will depart from Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Portland, Seattle, Miami, Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Las Vegas. They will stop in some 80 cities.

“The struggle for acceptance and justice endured by past immigrants continues today with some 8.5 million immigrants deprived of the right to apply for citizenship. Often separated from their families and victimized by unscrupulous employers, America’s newest class of immigrants is suffering,” said Kim Bobo, executive director of the Interfaith Worker Justice.

“Immigrants work hard, pay taxes and add to the richness of our culture, often doing jobs that are unwanted by others. They are our neighbors, co-workers, employees and friends. They are not strangers,” said Bobo.

There is a spiritual imperative to deal justly with immigrants, she added. In the Bible, chapter 19, verses 33 and 34 in the book of Leviticus say, “Don’t mistreat any foreigners who live in your land. Instead, treat them as well as you treat citizens and love them as you love yourself. Remember you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Congregations from Washington, D.C. to New York, Miami, Little Rock and Memphis to Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, San Jose, San Diego and Los Angeles will participate in Labor In the Pulpits.

For more information about specific congregations, contact Cynthia Brooke at (773) 728-8400, x40.