The president of the largest evangelical body in the United States testified in favor of liberalized immigration policies before a Senate subcommittee on Thursday, following an endorsement of immigration reform by the group’s governing board.

“Why is immigration policy important to evangelicals?” National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) President Leith Anderson asked the Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship. “Certainly because we believe what the Bible teaches about treatment of ‘aliens in the land.’ It is also because so many Hispanic, African and Asian immigrants are evangelical Christians who are in our denominations and churches by the millions. They are us.”

Anderson…reported to the committee that the NAE board had earlier that day unanimously endorsed a call for immigration reform.

Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Schumer eagerly embraced the NAE resolution. “Evangelicals’ community support for immigration reform is a moral imperative for all people of faith,” said the U.S. Senator from New York.

The NAE immigration resolution calls upon the government to develop structures and mechanisms that “safeguard and monitor the national borders with efficiency and respect for human dignity” but does not comment on enforcement once migrants have crossed those borders. It also calls for the annual entry of “a reasonable number of immigrant workers and families” as well as “reevaluating the impact of deportation on families.” The document also urges a “process toward earned legal status for currently undocumented immigrants.

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