Hot potato, hot potato

The issue of immigration is, in the words of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent's Jonathan Tobin, a "hot potato."

Where's the heat coming from? Tobin says it's a potent combination of "post-9/11 backlash against possible terrorist infiltration" and "traditional xenophobia."

Here in the desert, on our nation's southern border, the potato is particularly hot. We should applaud the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix for being willing to hold on to the burning tuber long enough to do something about it. The JCRC's resolution on comprehensive immigration reform makes it clear that immigration reform is indeed a "Jewish issue."

The reasons are legion. As the resolution reminds us: Migration has been a central element of the Jewish experience since biblical times; saving a human life takes precedence over all other Jewish laws and rituals; and finally, as a culture that celebrates the importance of family, we, especially, should appreciate the strain of enforced separation on family members.

The JCRC resolves to do several things, including:

Educating the Jewish community to raise awareness of current immigration policies
Monitoring federal and state legislative proposals and advocating for comprehensive immigration reform that addresses flow across the border, earned legalization and family visa backlogs, and that values human dignity and allows enforcement resources to be focused on dangerous criminals or terrorists
Working in conjunction with interfaith and ethnic communities to advance immigration reform
Speaking out against instances of human and civil rights abuses such as vigilantism, cruel law enforcement practices, harassment, workplace exploitation, and abuse of individuals based on ethnicity, heritage, national origin or legal status.

Thanks are due to the people who made the resolution a reality, in particular Rich Kasper and Julie Marcus, who co-chaired the JCRC subcommittee that put the resolution together; Cathy Wolf, who, as director of the JCRC before Michelle Steinberg, championed it; and Steinberg herself.

After her return from an August 2003 visit to the town of Altar, Mexico, which serves as a way station for those about to attempt illegal entry into the United States, Steinberg read "every week" about dead bodies found in the desert. She was especially haunted by an account that listed among the dead an 18-year-old boy. During her time in Altar, she'd met an 18-year-old boy named Pedro, who was about to risk his life to cross the border because his family was starving to death. Now, Steinberg says, she has a face to put with the newspaper's words.

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