St. Dysmas Didn't Need a Green Card

By Rev. Kathleen L. Blaner
Lutheran pastor, Kensington, Md.

President Obama is supporting a program and legislation to deport illegal immigrants in local jails across the nation. It's called "Secure Communities." It sounds good and sensible, even to folks who oppose efforts to deport illegal immigrants otherwise. Get rid of the criminals, but keep the law-abiding "undocumented" immigrants.

I'm a Lutheran pastor. Anyone who's heard a "Lake Woebegone" story knows that Lutherans are good and sensible people. So when I first read about the President's support for these measures, it made sense. Lutherans are mostly immigrants. My mother and father were immigrants in the 30's from Germany and Slovakia. They worked hard and we've lived the American dream.

I worked with immigrants in many capacities both before and after becoming a pastor. I started visiting prisoners in jail before leaving my 12 year law practice at local law firms here in DC. I prayed with prisoners in lock-up while serving as legislative counsel for clients in the Fortune 15.

I've lived in both worlds. On the surface, being in a prison and serving in a posh political position may seem quite different. But on reflection, I realize they are similar.

President Obama's support for "Secure Communities" is like the difference between a detention tank that reeks of urine and the beautiful tiled floors and baroque walls of the waiting room outside the U.S. Senate Chamber. It's a great paradox for the President to support "Secure Communities" when he makes his belief in God a very open part of his presidency, It's contrary to his very real commitment to families, including extended families like those that immigrants often rely on.

"Secure Communities" wrenches families apart no less than any other law that would deport illegal immigrants. Pastors are in a unique position to know this. We are among the chosen few allowed to visit "criminals" behind prison walls. We often are go-betweens among prisoners and their families.

They often are too poor and too afraid for visits. So we pastors take a clean shirt, a torn blanket, a fresh-baked muffin from the family to the prisoner. It's Holy Communion for them. Pastors return from prisoners to families with words as sacred as those in Holy Scripture.

Pastors also often negotiate the treacherous waters between prisoners, families, and the political systems that separate them. Pastors, not unlike lawyers who work in the legislative process, may find themselves raising great sums of money to help clients/parishioners in prison.

At times money is the lingua franca of prisons. It makes the difference between who gets sent home and who stays. If there is money to hire the right lawyers, who know the right local officials, and who can intervene at the most opportune moments before the right officials, then perhaps the detained, undocumented immigrant can magically find justice and be allowed to stay in the U.S., obtaining legal status.

When I worked as a lawyer, money also was the lingua franca that moved the political process along. If a client had enough money to hire the right lawyers, who were close friends of the right lawmakers, who were willing to introduce or support legislation, or hold hearings, the lawyers were miracle workers. Lawyers controlled which legislators were
present when key votes came up. They made dead legislative provisions come
back to life again. They turned limits on campaign contributions into
barrels of cash that fed millions into election campaigns. Really skilled lawyer could arrange one-on-one meetings between multiple clients and a single political official. For the right price - it used to be $25,000 for breakfast with a senator - at $5,000 per client everyone was happy and still remained within the campaign contribution laws at that time.

You do the math.

Pastors believe that God made everyone the same. A good pastor treats an illegal immigrant in jail for getting drunk and being on the wrong end of a fist no differently than the pastor would treat the most important political official on earth. We take vows to tell Manuel from Peru, locked in a jail cell and about to be deported, to stop drinking and
fighting. Those same vows make it our sacred duty to tell the President of the United States when he's not loving his immigrant brother as much as he loves God, himself, and others.

President Obama is a dazzling example of the American dream. He brought his extended family to live with him in the White House. His little girls and his wife need him to be there so they can live and grow as a family unit.

The two young children, wife, sister, and mother of Manuel from Peru came here looking for the American dream. Instead they are likely to be trapped in a nightmare if the "Secure Communities" law is enforced nationwide. Manuel's children and wife, mother and sister need him just as much as the President's wife and girls need him. Probably more, but the reality is he will be deported and they won't see him again because
they can't afford to leave and live at the same time. President Obama needs to stop enforcement of "Secure Communities."

Christians believe that Jesus was crucified between two thieves. Prison ministry takes its name from one of the two - St. Dymas. Dysmas supposedly asked forgiveness from Jesus as the three were dying together in agony on their crosses. Jesus forgave him and said, "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

Pastors hear a lot of confessions in prison. We also hear and see people locked up on minor charges from victimless crimes. These people pose little risk to society if allowed to stay in the U.S. once their sentences are done. Most frightening are the ones who are locked up even though they are innocent. Many of these are the "undocumented" immigrants.

Like pastors, most Christians and other people of faith, including President Obama and Jesus hanging on the cross, this is a country that believes in forgiveness. Once a person repents, Americans love the big come back. Look at Ted Kennedy. Does anyone remember Chappiquidik?

What about Bill Clinton? Impeached, but still beloved. And what about Marion Barry? A true folk hero.

We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

President Obama, please remember that your administration may need forgiveness too.

Rev. Kathleen L. Blaner is an alumus of Covington & Burling as well as Kirkland and Ellis. She left her practice in 2002 to enter the Luther Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where she earned her M. Div. She now serves as a Lutheran pastor at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Kensington, Maryland.

By Kathleen Blaner |  June 10, 2009; 2:01 PM ET
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