In July more than 6000 people gathered for San Jose 2007, a convention of Mennonite Church USA. Many of the attendees came from places like Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kansas. They also came from California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

They live everyday in a world marked by separate systems of opportunity and separate systems of justice.

Before the convention kicked off, Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference and West Coast Mennonite Central Committee hosted a day-long learning tour. Those of us interested in the subject of immigration and the experiences of California Mennonite churches, piled onto a bus at 6 a.m. to explore churches, fields and long stretches of dusty highway.

One of the first things we did was share a meal with migrant farm workers in Reedley CA. While we ate, we traded stories and talked about the experience of working in the fruit fields and traveling far from home. 

One of the men told us he left Mexico 12 years ago and is still living in the United States in order to work and support his family. He used to have a “good” job installing carpet. After authorities started asking about documentation he had to leave that job. Now he picks fruit in California and wishes he could learn to speak better English and live a more secure life.

All of the men talked openly about their fear of law enforcement officials and the unfortunate results of that fear. When the farm workers suffer crime, they rarely call the police. They worry about the immigration consequences should law enforcement officials discover one of their community is here without legal documents. Criminals know this fear exists and intentionally target them.

At San Jose 2007, our keynote speaker talked about deconstructing the walls that separate us. “We build walls among ourselves, and the Lord is inviting us to break them down,” he said.

I had to think about the farm workers we met and that they probably knew more about walls than many of us at the convention did.  They live everyday in a world marked by separate systems of opportunity and separate systems of justice.

As one who receives more than their share of opportunity and justice, I look to our representatives in the U.S. Congress to make several changes to this two-tiered system by:

1. Passing legislation that allows migrant farmers to realistically obtain legal status in the United States and eventually, if they choose, citizenship;
2. Opposing policies that target the human rights of immigrant communities and that make them more vulnerable to crime; and
3. Ceasing trade-distorting U.S. policies that lead to further economic disparity in many immigrants’ countries of origin.