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Dear Senator:

I greet you in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As the United Methodist Church Resident Bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, I am writing to thank you for all the good work you do on behalf of the people of Maryland. As you may be aware, the Baltimore-Washington Conference of The United Methodist Church is made up of about 200,000 members in more than 640 United Methodist churches in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

We are seeking your support for comprehensive immigration reform.  We believe that the bill being proposed, S744, is a positive strong step forward, but it still has some weaknesses that would keep it from being the just and humane comprehensive immigration reform that would benefit the nation.

There are a couple of necessary changes would make this bill more workable and effective:

• Move the cut-off date for those who can apply for the pathway to citizenship to the date of enactment of the bill rather than the arbitrary date of December 31, 2011 which will cut out hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are already in the U.S.
• Shorten the 13-year process for citizenship to a more workable 9 years.
• Do not tie the process for citizenship to border security "triggers."
• Allow those individuals with Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status to have access to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

We are also concerned about families. Family unity has always been a foundation of our society and of our immigration policy.  Family unity is a civil and human right, but is now threatened due to excessive family backlogs in the immigration processing system, and a merit-based system that favors business against the needs of families.

We are seeking your help to:

• Support reinstatement of sibling and adult children categories in the categories of persons who would be eligible to the pathway to citizenship.
• Support the reunification of same-gender immigrant families along with all other immigrant families as a matter of justice.

We also urge you to help protect the due process of all immigrants and ensure that workers are not exploited and are given the opportunity to advocate for livable wages and better working conditions.

In behalf of immigrant families, we thank you for your support and your kind consideration of our request.

May God continue to bless your work.

Bishop Marcus Matthews