Reform Movement Leaders Support Immigrants and Refugees
For decades, the Reform movement has advocated for immigration policies that are compassionate and just, reflecting the United States’ status as a nation founded and strengthened by immigrants and as a nation of laws with borders that must be secure. We now speak strongly against the policies and Executive Orders issued by President Trump that demonize immigrants, seek to end birthright citizenship, target immigrants for mass deportation, make synagogues newly vulnerable to immigration enforcement actions, and cut off vital funding for essential refugee resettlement work – including that which helps fund HIAS, the nation’s oldest refugee resettlement agency, founded by the Jewish community and serving people of all faiths.
Like most Americans, Jewish Americans are an immigrant community. Today, more than a century after the largest waves of Jewish immigration to the United States, we recall that anti-immigrant legislation passed in the 1920s discriminatorily limited legal immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe and prohibited most European Jews from finding refuge on American shores during the Nazi Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of people who sought but could not find refuge here met their end in Hitler’s gas chambers and crematoria. This terrible history reinforces the lessons of the Torah, which commands us thirty-six times to be mindful of the plight of the stranger, for we were strangers in Egypt.
Reform Jewish congregations, rabbis, cantors, and educators have long been engaged in the holy work of welcoming and resettling immigrants and refugees—Jews escaping antisemitism and limited opportunity in Eastern Europe, Vietnamese and Cuban people freeing oppressive regimes, refuseniks from the former Soviet Union, and many more. Today, our communities are diligently involved in resettlement of refugees whose lives are endangered by their having served with the United States Armed Forces in Afghanistan and others fleeing war-torn nations such as Syria and Ukraine. Reform communities along the southern border are deeply engaged in relief work with those who have recently arrived in the United States. Some Reform communities have declared themselves to be sanctuaries for those facing deportation and we are deeply opposed to the rescission of the policy that protected houses of worship from immigration enforcement actions.
The demonization of immigrants as criminals must stop. Mass roundups of immigrants, or those perceived to be immigrants, and deportation without due process must halt. Funding to refugee resettlement agencies must be restored. Efforts to eliminate the Constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship must cease. Houses of worship must again be able to fulfill their prophetic mandate without fear of ICE raids. Asylum seekers must be allowed the right to plead their case. Migrants who were previously approved to enter the U.S. must have that approval reinstated. And it is time for Congress and the Trump administration to work together to achieve immigration reform that upholds our status as a nation of immigrants, meets the needs of businesses and employers, and ensures the nation’s security and future well-being.
Reform communities and their leaders will continue this work, inspired by our Jewish history, biblical teachings, and the Constitution’s commitment to the free exercise of religion.
Union for Reform Judaism
Central Conference of American Rabbis
American Conference of Cantors
Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism
Men of Reform Judaism
National Association for Temple Administration
Program and Engagement Professionals of Reform Judaism
Reform Pension Board
Women of Reform Judaism
Women's Rabbinic Network