In each major religious tradition, we are called to love the stranger for we too have been strangers in a strange land. Many have said that the next issue to crest the horizon of American politics after health care is immigration reform. Whether your faith community is largely made up of immigrants or is struggling with issues of prejudice, Auburn has resources that can help you engage your community to serve the needs of immigrants in your midst and in your land as well as advocate for the laws that you believe make for a just America.

Auburn recommends you track the New Year's Resolution campaign to learn more about the 2010/2011 viral video campaign to renew your commitment to building a more welcoming community. Click here for details. 
►Sponsored by Church World Service the New Year’s Resolution campaign is a way for you to inspire and be inspired, renew your commitment to building more welcoming communities and advocating for humane immigration policies in 2011, and share that commitment with others. Find full information and a link to CWS Executive Director John McCullough's ”New Year’s Resolution for More Welcoming Communities”  Click here to get the CSW toolkit and learn more and be a part of the New Year's Resolution campaign. 

More Auburn Resources to help your faith community create change for Immigration Reform

• • Media Training: Auburn has trained individual clergy and groups of religious leaders to deal with the complexities giving television, print and radio interviews on immigration. From the leader of a primarily immigrant church in a border state to a rural church in a community struggling to keep its jobs, we've helped clergy walk the fine lines with grace and poise. For more information on our trainings or to be trained, click here.
• • Changethestory.net: Auburn co-produced this site that offers an interactive experience where users—Muslim and non-Muslim alike—can meet their neighbors, learn about Islam and apply techniques of interfaith dialogue and action to their local communities.
• • Religion and Law Enforcement: When Does Prosecution Become Persecution? - leading legal experts and religious figures reflected on the impact 'the war on terror'  has had on the lives of Muslims and other non-dominant religious communities in the U.S. Featured topics in this two-part series: 'Torture, Is It Ever Moral' and 'The Ethics of Surveillance/Monitoring Mosques'.

The links that will change the way you live and lead in regard to immigration:

• • People for the American Way details the nine strategies designed to defeat any efforts to reform our immigration system, as well as tools for fighting back against these dishonest attacks.
• •Church World Service offers resources on what faith communities can do to bring more welcoming environments. Nearly 40 million people around the world are uprooted from their homes and communities by persecution and armed conflict. The Immigration and Refugee Program of Church World Service (CWS/IRP) is an ecumenical family empowering churches to show hospitality to strangers, that is, to immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and other uprooted people in the United States and around the world.  
• • The New Sanctuary Movement gives your congregation the tools to care for the members of your community in need of immigration help.
• • Faith in Public Life's faith map can lead you to the immigration organization in your backyard where you can take action.