United Methodists risk arrest in deportation protest

Bishop Minerva Carcaño led a group of United Methodists as they joined with more than 100 faith leaders and immigration activists in an act of civil disobedience in front of the White House on July 31, 2014 to demand President Barack Obama end “inhumane” immigration enforcement policies. Bill Mefford, director at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said United Methodists came from Texas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, California, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Mississippi, Tennessee and Hawaii in support of immigration reform. United Methodist News Service has more coverage of the demonstration. 

Video streaming of the immigration event began at 12 noon EST/ 11 a.m. CST on July 31, 2014.


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Immigration
In a Nativity scene at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dallas, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus are depicted being held in a detention center, as a protest of how immigrants are being treated in the United States. “We feel it’s important to depict the parallel of what’s happening in our world with what we understand to have been happening in the biblical story of the birth of Jesus,” said the Rev. Rachel Griffin-Allison, senior pastor of Oak Lawn. Photo courtesy of Oak Lawn United Methodist Church.

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Immigration
Bishop Minerva Carcaño (left), chair of the United Methodist Immigration Task Force, listens as the Rev. Giovanni Arroyo, top staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, speaks during the United Methodist Immigration Task Force meeting, held Nov. 18-20 in Los Angeles. The gathering brought together church agencies, migrant ministries, bishops and ecumenical partners to strengthen coordinated advocacy. Photo by the Rev. Gustavo Vasquez, UM News.

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Immigration
Illinois State Police Lt. Col. Jason Bradley (left) speaks with the Rev. Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist pastor who was among a group of clergy on Oct. 10 asking to bring Holy Communion to detainees in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, near Chicago. The following day another group of clergy also made the same request. Both times Bradley reached out to ICE officials, who denied the clergy entry. Photo by the Rev. Britt Cox, First United Methodist Church in Evanston, Ill.

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