The Tribune's Sheena McFarland offers a rare glimpse into the problems faced by a worldwide church that apparently sends undocumented immigrants on missions. Last week, an LDS missionary was stopped at the Cincinnati airport for "lacking necessary documentation to board his flight home." An unnamed church official told McFarland the incident has rocked the church's missionary program:The travel department of the church has to rethink everything. Things have changed, and they need a whole new policy. With ICE hitting them at the bus terminals and airports, this opens a whole new discussion. I don't know how many undocumented immigrants we have serving missions, but I'm sure this is going to repeat itself.
Missions are fundamental to the Mormons and a top church official, apostle Jeffrey R. Holland, told McFarland that the church has been grappling with its stance toward illegal-immigrant missionaries for more than a decade:With the known realization that those risks exist, then we want to do better, or at least learn more. We want to be more precise, if we can, about how to help, how to make [a mission] the calmest, most spiritually rewarding experience for everybody.
We're always trying to do, always and forever, exactly what's legal, and in the spirit of that, be fair to everyone on the religious side, on the spiritual side, to have the spiritual benefits of [serving a mission].
BYU graduate Charles Kuck, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says the incident is just another reason federal immigration reform is needed:You have kids who just have spent the two most important years in their lives now having to worry about being thrown in jail for not having proper documentation to get on a plane.
Meanwhile, LDS critics and members alike are asking how the church can square its belief in the rule of law with sending people illegally in the United States on missions across state lines? Also, if mission officials know these missionaries have immigration problems, are those church officials open to legal or criminal action?
3 Comments:
Reminds me of the old Temple Recommend question:
"Are you honest in your dealings with your fellowmen?"
If you have to outrun Immigration and Customs Enforcement, I'm guessing not. Why does the law have to change to accommodate the church's need for free labor?
We believe in obeying laws, but then again, sometimes the laws are unjust (think Nazi Germany or Missouri Governor L. Boggs' Mormon extermination order). And it's important to remember that after Mormons were run out of Illinois, and their property stolen from them, they fled to Mexican Territory (here) and were illegal immigrants. I don't think we were wrong to come here either.
If this is what the LDS church meant by "raising the bar" on quality of missionaries, should members expect to see alcoholic beverages served in temple cafeterias soon?
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