SILVER SPRING – Love thy neighbors as thyself, even if they don’t file their taxes. At least that is what more than 550 religious leaders from around the state argued, as they gathered Tuesday night to train members to campaign for passage of the Dream Act this November.
The Dream Act would allow some undocumented immigrants, who meet numerous requirements, to pay in-state tuition rates at state public colleges and universities.
Pastors, Bishops and Reverends stood in front of the crowd of over 750 people and rallied the legislation by quoting biblical passages.
“Some things only God can do, but this one, there are too many of us to put this upon God. What we can do, we must do,” said Bishop Darlingston Johnson, from Bethel World Outreach Ministries, in Silver Spring.
Congregations from all over Maryland met at the Southern Asian Seventh-day Adventist Church and sat and prayed with immigrants from Liberia, Mexico and El Salvador who are depending on the passage of the dream act to go to college.
“We are so blessed as a society, we can afford to be generous,” said the Rev. Jessica Hitchcock, from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Bethesda.