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Episcopal Church joins “Dream Sabbath” Campaign in support of national DREAM Act

July 7, 2011
Office of Public Affairs

The Episcopal Church has joined other religious denominations and faith-based organizations in supporting the DREAM Act, and asks churches to participate in a Dream Sabbath between September 18 to October 9.

DREAM stands for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors. The DREAM Act 2011 is bipartisan legislation that would grant legalized status to undocumented young people with good moral character who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and graduated from high school. Permanent resident status would be available upon completion of two years of higher education or military service.

“The Episcopal Church supports the DREAM Act through the approval of General Convention 2009 Resolution B006,” noted Alex Baumgarten, Episcopal Church Director of Government Relations and International Policy Analyst. “The DREAM Act would help thousands of youth who came to our country as undocumented to receive legal status, thereby granting untold opportunities on their way to becoming United States citizens.”

“Every child growing up in America deserves the opportunity to become a productive member of society and to achieve their dreams,” noted Ana G. White, Episcopal Church Immigration and Refugee Policy Analyst. “Withholding legal status from these children not only hurts them, but it deprives America of future generations of dedicated citizens, innovators, entrepreneurs and public servants. The DREAM Act will help them.”

Dream Sabbath Campaign
The Dream Sabbath Campaign is an interreligious effort, coordinated by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, to enlist churches to dedicate a Sabbath for dialogue on the Dream Act.

Churches can also request a DREAM Act student come to their worship service between September 18 and October 9 to share their story.

DREAM Act
Each year approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools. Passage of the DREAM Act is one important step towards the just and humane reform the broken immigration system needs.

The DREAM Act was introduced in the 112th Congress on May 11 by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Harry Reid (D-NV) in the Senate as S.952 and in the House by Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) as H.R.1842.

The DREAM Act will not apply to students with criminal records or dishonorable discharges from the military. Rather, the DREAM Act would provide a tough but fair process by which they could gain legal status.

Information
For more information and resources contact awhite@episcopalchurch.org

DREAM Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d112:3:./temp/~bd57Lu::|/home/LegislativeData.php|

Dream Sabbath Campaign http://www.interfaithimmigration.org/

Episcopal Church General Convention 2009 Resolution B006: http://38.149.19.55/viewlegislation/view_leg_detail.aspx?id=961{RDhref+}type=Final

Resource: National Immigration Law Center: http://www.nilc.org/

Contact
Amanda Skofstad

Public Affairs Officer

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