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I cringe every time I hear the phrase ‘family unity.’ Did you not get the memo from the Catholic Church? It’s actually ‘heterosexual family unity.’ Some families, some immigrants are just better, just a little bit more important than others. That’s what the Catholic Church of Bishops and National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference believe given why they withdrew support from a comprehensive legalization solution after UAFA—the same-sex binational couples—bill was added to the conversation. From Politico: “The last thing the immigration debate needs is another politically divisive issue,” said Kevin Appleby, the bishops’ director of migration and refugee policy. Another major ally, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, called the efforts to slip gay rights into the immigration debate a “slap in the face to those of us who have fought for years for immigration reform.” Rodriguez, who has worked with evangelical churches to build support for a broader immigration bill that would expand visa laws, said that if the same-sex language stays in, it will “divide the very broad and strong coalition that we have built on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform.” Rev. Rodriguez is not only wrong in his assertion, but also insulting. I work mostly with migrant youth fighting for the DREAM Act—the most viable, doable and popular part of comprehensive legalization reforms. And I know for a fact that the movement is dominated by queer youth and women in leadership positions. Regardless of that small fact, I would love to know which immigrant Jesus would pick to throw under the bus.
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