Obama’s Unlikely Allies in Immigration Reform

Posted on Jul 19, 2010

AP / Charles Dharapak

President Barack Obama is introduced by Pastor Bill Hybels of Chicago’s Willow Creek Community Church before speaking about immigration reform on July 1 at American University in Washington.

President Obama is preparing for another drawn-out legislative and public battle over yet another contentious and unwieldy issue: immigration reform. But in this case, he may get help from some surprising sources at the right of the political spectrum.  —KA

The New York Times:

Hispanic storefront churches are popping up in strip malls, and Spanish-speaking congregations are renting space in other churches. Some pastors, like Mr. Hybels, lead churches that include growing numbers of Hispanics. Several evangelical leaders said they were convinced that Hispanics are the key to growth not only for the evangelical movement, but also for the social conservative movement.

“Hispanics are religious, family-oriented, pro-life, entrepreneurial,” said the Rev. Richard D. Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm. “They are hard-wired social conservatives, unless they’re driven away.

“I’ve had some older conservative leaders say: ‘Richard, stop this. You’re going to split the conservative coalition,’ ” Dr. Land continued. “I say it might split the old conservative coalition, but it won’t split the new one. And if the new one is going to be a governing coalition, it’s going to have to have a lot of Hispanics in it. And you don’t get a lot of Hispanics in your coalition by engaging in anti-Hispanic anti-immigration rhetoric.”

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