Eliseo Medina, the former secretary-treasurer of SEIU who fasted 22 days for immigration reform last fall, visited Steve King’s district in Iowa yesterday to hold a #Fast4Families prayer service. Rep. King declined to be in attendance, even though he previously issued a challenge for people of faith to debate their support for immigration reform.
Last December, King implied that the large number of evangelicals and faith leaders who support immigration reform were misguided, and offered to set them straight:
“We might lose that debate in this country because of the sympathy factor, and it’s also added to by a lot of Christian groups who misread the scripture, and I’m happy to take on that debate with any one of those folks,” King said.
Medina, in coming to King’s district, was ready to accept the challenge, but there was no response from King.
Medina’s prayer service last night drew a packed room, where more than a hundred advocates and supporters came to pray for the passage of immigration reform that creates a path to citizenship for the 11 million. He spoke about the moral imperative for immigration reform, the power of prayer and the importance of contacting members of Congress in support the issue. Those in the audience came away inspired to take action, vowing to use Iowa’s all-important status as the first caucus state to push Republican presidential candidates to support immigration reform with a path to citizenship.
As Harold Heie, a retired Northwestern professor from Orange City, said in a press statement:
Iowans need to support immigration reform because such reform will promote ‘family values’ by eliminating the harmful practices that are currently breaking Latino families apart, and will greatly benefit the well-being of our communities and contribute to strong local economies.
View some of the pictures from the prayer service yesterday:
