Are Evangelicals Changing the Landscape on Immigration Reform?

Reuters suggests that changing opinions of evangelicals on immigration reform may have an impact for the Republican Party in the near future.  From the article (click here to read the whole thing):

Support for an immigration overhaul among Christian conservatives has been growing over time. In 2011, the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention – the country’s largest Protestant body – called for “a just and compassionate path to legal status” for illegal immigrants while urging the government to secure U.S. borders.

A Public Religion Research Institute poll in 2010 showed white evangelicals support, by a margin of 2-1, an immigration reform that would allow illegal immigrants to become Americans.

The article goes on to mention that hispanics account for a rapidly growing portion of evangelicals, and that this demographic change may be contributing to the shift in opinion.

It’s interesting to see the justifications made by evangelicals for their opinions on immigration reform.  They cite biblical passages about caring for immigrants, but make no mention (or at least, the article makes no mention) of the distinction between individual action and government action.  I haven’t entirely worked out my own positions on immigration reform, but I certainly recognize that there can be differences between how I should personally approach a social question and how my government should act.

Regardless, more work needs to be done on immigration reform generally.  It’s a policy topic that is trotted out at times of “speechifying” like the State of the Union or while campaigning, but then quickly shelved when it’s time to get down to real business.

I think there is one thing everyone can agree on: Let’s speed up the path to legal immigration and make sure we are an attractive place for the best and brightest around the world.  After all, no one should have a problem with legal immigrants.

So while I think more work does need to be done on immigration reform when it comes to current and future illegal immigrants, why not focus our efforts on improving and massively speeding-up our legal immigration process?