PCUSA Stance on Family Separation

Approved that the 223rd General Assembly:

1. Call upon the federal government to immediately end the newly implemented zero-tolerance policy that is tearing apart families.
2. Call upon the federal government to reunite parents and children that have been separated as soon as possible, under the care of the community, not in family detention ensuring access of attorneys to those in detention.
3. Call upon the federal government to make certain that every parent in custody knows the location of their children and facilitate regular communication between parents and their children until they are reunited.
4. Call upon the federal government to not use possible reunification with children to force immigrant parents into a concession to plead guilty to a crime in exchange for reuniting with their children.
5. Condemns the President’s June 20th Executive Order “Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation” that further criminalizes migration through the expansion of family detention on military bases and other government property, potentially indefinitely.”
6. Call upon synods, presbyteries, and individual churches to understand, condemn, and work against the ideology of white supremacy undergirding these racist immigration policies.
7. Remind our denomination of the Gospel call to work for just and humane policies for all immigrant communities, grounded in the principles of family unity, human dignity, and rights.
8. Direct the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly to communicate the contents of this overture to the President of the United States, our representatives in Congress, as well as to Jeff Sessions, U.S. Attorney General, and Kirstjen Nielson, U.S. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
9. Strongly encourage congregations to learn about the impact of these immigration policies on the lives of church members as well as members of our local communities.