Stop Raiding our Churches

The urgent need to resolve the immigration problem and demand that ICE stop their raids is getting closer to home. For about the last two years I have tried to encourage pastors and ministers to speak out against the raids and the lack of respect and dignity ICE has for our people.

Thus far the church has been safe until last Saturday. In Yavapai County in Arizona, the Sheriff's Office responding allegedly to complaints of people fighting and creating a disturbance prompted them to arrest several men at the camp ground.

The rest of the story is simply a tragedy and should serve as a warning that now, not even a church on retreat can be safe from the local sheriff deputies or ICE agents.

In Yavapai County, the Christian church, Christian Agape from Phoenix was sponsoring a church retreat for a group of men. According to the Phoenix Republic newspaper, it reports members of the group started singing songs and praying around 6:30 a.m. or so in the morning.

When the Sheriff Deputies arrived, they ended up detaining at least 12 men including an 11 year old child. They ended up deporting 7 males back to Mexico; one person was released after he proved he had the proper documents to be in the country legally.

Unfortunately, the 9th person, the pastor, identified as Rev. Manual Maldonado was not released. His status to be in the country is being disputed and no doubt a judge will need to decide his case.

But let me go back and repeat..­. 7 Christian men were deported to Mexico and the pastor was not released.

This is an outrage and must be condemned by every faith leader and pastor not only in Arizona, but across this country. Fortunately, the pastors in Arizona have issued a joint interfaith statement charging that law enforcement officers were guilty of racial and religious prosecution.

Other members of the Alliance of Religious Leaders say the raid and arrests were prompted by skin color and profiling, and that many of the church members are undocumented.

If this incident does not cause people of faith to condemn the arrests of men in song and prayer at a church retreat, then I ask you to drop to your knees and ask for forgiveness.

This is simply unwarranted, it is a raid against church going men, and is an affront to our religious beliefs and values. Furthermore it is against our rights under the United States Constitution for the right of assembly and freedom of religion.

We know that many of our church members may be undocumented immigrants. As a practice, I have never heard of any pastor demanding status papers before anyone could worship in our churches.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this will have an alarming effect on church members who may be undocumented. Now, no doubt many will fear getting together for worship, prayer, and praise.

The Phoenix Republic newspaper quotes Rev. Jose Gonzalez, involved in the Latino ministry in one of the local Baptist churches. "He said Hispanic pastors, who previously had said this won't happen to me, this won't affect my congregation" attitude on immigration, now are taking it more seriously.

Pastors, we all better take this deplorable and unacceptable action of the raids more seriously as well. ICE condones these raids and it is time they are stopped!

I encourage and I am sorry my friends, but for those pastors who still think this is not a problem, demand that we condemn these raids against Latinos worshipping, praying, and singing to our Lord Jesus Christ in our churches or in public campgrounds.

Those of you who used to laugh at my predictions..­.now we all need to pray in unity for our congregations and our families.

As Magdalena Schwartz, an assistant pastor at Iglesia Comunidad de Vida church in Mesa quoted in the Arizona Republic said, "We cannot encourage people to go camping any more," Schwartz said."For us, it's an evil attack. We cannot pray any more in the public places, or go camping because somebody can call the sheriff. It's intimidation. It makes us scared."

Fidel "Butch" Montoya
H. S. Power & Light - Latino Faith Based Initiative

Reining In Sheriff Joe

Several years ago, I held the position of Manager of Safety for the City and County of Denver. In that position I was responsible for the Denver Police Department, the Denver Sheriff Department, and the Denver Fire Department. It was a tremendous opportunity and responsibility, but one that also came with many critics as you can imagine.

Over the years, prior to being appointed to this position, I fancied myself as a "community activist." I found myself on the side of many Latino activists protesting or fighting the local politicos over issues of injustice, poverty and racism, and the drop out rate hovering over the 50% mark, and yes, occasionally protesting against the police for some sort of questionable police action in the Latino community.

So when I was appointed to the position, a position I served for almost 7 years, it immediately placed me in the eyes of some of my community comrades, as an adversary.

Being the top law enforcement agent in the city responsible for implementing public safety policies, at times it was difficult trying to please the public or some of the public servants who answered to me and carried guns.

I remember one occasion, where I attended a neighborhood meeting discussing an incident where a police officer stopped and ticketed a high school student who was caught speeding in the high school parking lot. The police officer then turned around and called the INS because he determined the student was an undocumented immigrant. While this issue caught fire, I did not realize how my image would change for some activists and friends until that meeting.

When the incident was brought to my attention, I immediately called for the Police Chief to reverse the action, and ensured the protesters calling my office that in my opinion police procedures were not followed, and I clearly stated that Denver Police would not be agents of the INS.

Of course, some police officers decried the action saying I was harboring “illegal immigrants.” “Illegal immigrants” I thought to myself, what is that? I felt and many of the residents of our city agreed with me, that what had happened was an injustice and should not happen again.

I briefed the mayor about the situation, and he agreed that I was correct in reversing the action taken against this terribly frightened high school student and his family.

Hate radio talk hosts had a field day, blasting my “intervention in police work.” Still, I stood my ground and took the heat from people on the radio who thought I was being sympathetic to "illegal immigrants" over the police. Even some police officers, and believe it or not, some of the “high command of the police department” urged me not to discipline this particular officer because after all he was just doing his job.

Internally we had our discussions, and I made it clear, we were wrong to arrest the high school student and in the future it would be expected that police officers would follow the correct police policy toward undocumented immigrants.

At a community meeting – a rather large community meeting I might add, I took with me every division chief from the police department, and the undersheriff of the sheriff department to the meeting, not to mention a hand full of antacid tablets. I figured I'd be fairly safe surrounded in blue from any unruley protestor.

We sat there and literally took our “verbal beating from the Latino activists," and community members. Even though I assured the community what had happened was contrary to police policy, and that it would not happen again, the angry protests did not stop.

Even today, one of Denver's hate radio talk show hosts will still bring it up and criticize me for something that happened years ago. Only now, I can laugh about it.

In essence, I apologized to the family of the young man over the objections of the police chief and assured the community we would work with them on these kinds of issues. For the record, the chief had the good sense to keep his objections to himself.

As we were leaving the meeting, “a friend, a long time community activist, and someone who worked with me as a fellow city employee” came up to me and made a comment that seared my heart and made me step back from the comment.

She said, “How does it feel for the oppressed to become the oppressor?” Wow, I was shocked and essentially stunned to find that my friends now considered me "the dreaded oppressor".

Along with all the other criticism, my own “gente” were now taking me out to the wood shed. Why is it that our own gente always seem to be our worse critics??

In a Wednesday, April 9 editorial of The New York Times, entitled, "Immigration, Outsourced," the infamous Arizona county Sheriff Joe Arpaio is criticized and rightly so in my estimation for his cruel and abusive police tactics profiling brown people in Arizona.

If you have a broken windshield, or a back tail light that is out, or if you even look suspicious, in Arizona, Sheriff Joe or his little Gestapo army of deputies will stop you and most likely arrest you for driving while being brown.

Even the mayor of Phoenix and several smaller town officials want Sheriff Joe out of their communities. In my opinion, there is little doubt that Sheriff Joe is definitely out of control and with all the police powers he carries in his gun holster; no one seems able to stop him, or question his abusive police tactics.

Incredibly frightening as far as I am concerned when no one seems willing to stand up to the Nazi sheriff of the southwest or his Minuteman followers. I believe when people are so afraid of the sheriff, that many would rather live in fear than confront him, something is terribly wrong with law enforcement.

The whole reason we have people like Sheriff Joe along with his army of 160 deputies and a “3,000 member posse” of minutemen and racists, with about 500 of them armed, locked and loaded and patrolling our streets is because the Bush Administration continues to support this kind of “enforcement first immigration policy". It also lets other local law agencies do his dirty work.

Under a program called 287(g),the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is encouraging “junior agents,” or local deputies and cops to receive very little immigration law training, allowing them to enforce laws so complicated that a good immigration attorney with years of experience will tell you it is very difficult to do. Yet DHS continues to "train" local cops so they can enforce Federal immigration laws.

Almost like giving a gun to a small child and expecting him to know how to use it properly.

The New York Times editorial says it is time to rein in Sheriff Joe, and as a former public law enforcement official, I could not agree more. When will the rest of you agree as well?

Fidel "Butch" Montoya
H. S. Power & Light - Latino Faith Based Initiative

The Still Small Voice that says, "Write it Down"

Three years ago when we started to warn the pastors and churches about immigration issues, I know that many of them laughed at us. Many refused to understand the seriousness we were going to face. Many simply refused to accept the information.

Today, there are still many pastors who simply will not accept the fact that times are going to be very difficult for the faithful. The Latino Evangelical Church still needs to prepare for more attacks of the evil one....and we need to pray.

I have been sending out notices about prayer ONCE a month for ONE hour on Wednesdays. Thus far only ONE other pastor has opened the doors of his church for prayer.

Some pastors are too busy with their own agendas. Too busy with their own ministries not to understand their ministries will be affected. Too busy to stop and think about joining together in prayer. Praying with one another strengthens the fellowship between pastors. It strengthens the body of believers.

Last week, no one showed up to pray. I prayed alone.

It may be true that pastors are too busy. But unless we make time to pray together, when the times of hardship come....and trust me, they will, we will not know how to pray for each other.

Like everything else, we must train and discipline ourselves. WE do that by praying with each other. The Lord called for his disciples to pray with him....on the eve of his arrest. While “he prayed more earnestly,” we are told “his sweat was like drops of blood falling to ground.” – When the Lord looked for his disciples, his one question to them was, “Why are you sleeping?”

Are our churches sleeping through the biggest crisis of our time? Are we still more concerned with the ministry within the four walls of our churches? Can’t we understand the new laws that passing in state legislatures will make life so much more difficult for our people?

All across America we are seeing the effect of hate, suspicion, and fear upon our communities. The communities of Latino immigrants are being uprooted and they are running away in fear from the ICE agents.

Oh, that we would simply heed the words of the Lord. Oh, that we might fall on our knees in humbleness seeking His face and wisdom. The Holy Spirit is ready to minister to our needs, to help and guide us through the difficult times we face.

Instead we are stubborn and think WE know better. WE don't need to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. WE think we know the way. In all reality, this is the time that WE must rely upon the wisdom, strength, and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We need to find a better way and God is waiting for us to stop playing church and to get serious about the problems facing not only our ministries, but the problems facing our people.

As I read the newspapers from across the country, the problems are the same everywhere. Laws are being passed to make life more difficult. Along the way, it is not just the migrant or undocumented immigrant being affected, but Latino citizens of the USA as well.

Latino Evangelical pastors...born and raised in the USA are being pressured, harassed and intimidated by ICE agents. They are attempting to shut down the one most important leader in our communities, the Pastor.

If they can intimidate the pastor from standing up for the undocumented immigrant, from preaching justice from the pulpit, from assisting families that need support, ICE agents will win this battle and churches might as well hang signs that say, “Closed.”

It is past time of trying to get more pastors to understand that our country is changing for the worse and Godly people must speak out.

It is time our pastors join together in prayer on a regular basis. It is time for the pastors from across the country to understand that united in prayer, we can call upon the power of the Holy Spirit to fight for us.

My brother and my sister....there is nothing like the power of prayer. Why can't we understand that? Many preach that doctrine every Sunday, but yet we have not learned to put it into practice ourselves.

Let us learn to pray without ceasing. In Micah Chapter 6, verses 6 -9, we ask what offerings we should bring as we bow down before the Lord.

Should we bring a brunt offering of calves a year old?

Would the Lord be pleased with a thousand rams?

How about ten thousand rivers of oil?

Should I offer my first born for my transgressions?

How about the fruit of my body for the sins of my soul?

The Prophet answers those questions by telling us, HE has shown us what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you? "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God....and Listen,for the Lord is calling to the city...."

Why can’t we act justly? Love mercy? Walk humbly with our God? And listen to His voice?

I believe in order to hear His voice, we must join together in prayer all across this country in great need of revival. If we simply write it down in our hearts, he will direct our work for His Honor and Glory.