Posted by:
cludgie
(
)
Date: February 23, 2012 02:12PM
Here's a link from the Center for Immigration Studies to an important article about this very thing:
http://cis.org/mormon-church-and-illegal-immigrationChurch Protects Itself
Once the Church recognized that it was walking a fine legal line with its don’t ask don’t tell policy, and as illegal aliens joined the Church in ever-greater numbers, the Church, as noted earlier, had U.S. Sen. Robert Bennett covertly amend the U.S. immigration act in 2005 to protect it from possible violations of U.S. immigration law. Under Bennett’s amendment, churches were given legal immunity from immigration laws that make it a crime to house, transport, and provide stipends to illegal aliens. Bennett’s amendment reads:
“Section 274(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324(a)(1) is amended by adding at the end the following: ‘(C) It is not violation of clauses (ii) or (iii) of subparagraph (A), or of clause (iv) of subparagraph (A) except where a person encourages or induces an alien to come to or enter the United States, for a religious denomination having a bona fide nonprofit, religious organization in the United States, or the agents or officers of such denomination or organization, to encourage, invite, call, allow, or enable an alien who is present in the United States to perform the vocation of a minister or missionary for the denomination or organization in the United States as a volunteer who is not compensated as an employee, notwithstanding the provision of room, board, travel, medical assistance, and other basic living expenses, provided the minister or missionary has been a member of the denomination for at least one year.’”
Once the Church had immunity, it was free to continue its missionary efforts among illegal aliens. In addition, it could now openly send illegal aliens on missions within the United States rather than requiring them to return to their home countries for extended periods before allowing them to serve missions.
In an exception to its “don’t ask, don’t tell policy,” Church leaders now identify and make accommodations for illegal aliens who are called on missions. The Church does not assign them to missions outside of the United States because if they leave the United States, they cannot legally reenter the United States for at least 10 years due to their previous illegal status.90
However, while the Church has immunity, illegal alien missionaries do not.
In 2009, a Mormon missionary was arrested at the Cincinnati airport while returning home from his mission and turned over to ICE. The arrest brought the issue of illegal alien missionaries to the front and many Church members were surprised to learn that the Church allows illegal aliens to serve missions.
Following the arrest of the missionary, Elder Jeffery R. Holland, a member of the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, acknowledged that illegal aliens were serving as missionaries when he told a Salt Lake Tribune reporter that “They [missionaries] go knowing themselves that they’re at risk, and nothing in our mission call changes that. They know that, and we know that, and we work within those parameters to have them be constructive, honorable, faithful, spiritual, religious emissaries for that period of service.” Elder Holland, also confirmed that there had been an ongoing discussion about illegal aliens serving missions for 15 years.91
This subject is referenced in several newspapers, including this Peggy Fletcher Stack blog in the the Trib, since updated and containing less information than the original:
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53551927-68/mormon-latino-mormons-immigration.html.cspIt's important to go to the SLTrib site above (.../53551927-68/...and not the updated URL (.../53551868-180/...) because the latter takes you to a cleaned up version that makes no reference to the illegal transportation thing by the LDS church: ..."it is estimated that nearly 70 percent of Latino Mormons are illegal immigrants. He said the church has responded by hiring members whose sole jobs are to transport some Latino missionaries from state to state because they can't fly due to their immigration status."
While it is underhanded and seems like there is no intention to "obey the law of the land," it is no longer illegal for the Mormons to do this. It's certainly against the spirit of the law of the land, since the missionaries would STILL be arrested if ever caught for any reason. I wonder if they're concerned about that.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2012 02:45PM by cludgie.