The Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship
in collaboration with
Community to Community

WHEREAS –  The Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship affirms and promotes the inherent worth and dignity of all people, the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all, and the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, AND

WHEREAS – We recognize that migration, immigration and the movement of people is a permanent feature of globalization, and

WHEREAS –  Immigration policies and laws that are not based on dignity and labor and human civil rights for all people are not just, and are detrimental to society, and

WHEREAS –  Migration and immigration are caused by social, environmental and political challenges, forces and policies over which migrants themselves have no control; including war, economic opportunity, environmental degradation and human rights violations,  and

WHEREAS –  Local and national Immigration policies and attitudes have a history of treating people differently based on their race and the part of the world from which they came, thus using those characteristics as justification for discrimination,  and acting so that certain immigrants shouldn’t be eligible to have the same rights as the people in the community around them,  and

WHEREAS –  Immigration and migration issues have a direct and significant impact on the community of Whatcom County and beyond,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT
The Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship hereby adopts, in principle, the Dignity Campaign which is supported by  Community to Community, by supporting efforts within the Congregation and in the greater community of Whatcom County and beyond, through action to achieve these goals;

Work to reform our borders from being a place where civil rights are suspended to a place where civil rights are recognized as an essential component of human relations, by reducing the level of militarization, and redirecting the funds spent on enforcement to meeting the basic needs of people for jobs and public services; and

Work to reform our immigration policy and attitudes from one of labor exploitation to one of human and economic equity for both workers and the corporate entities employing them, by repealing the criminalization of work by employer sanctions, and by abolishing guest worker programs, and

Work to reform those policies and processes that currently treat immigrants and migrant populations as potential and real criminals, and

Work to ensure that migrant and immigrant populations have access to the same basic rights as the members of the communities in which they reside and work, beginning with an inclusive and rapid process which will give permanent legal residence status to those presently undocumented, and

Work to prohibit and reform those trade and economic policies that cause poverty and displacement, both locally and abroad, for the benefit of all.

AND, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT
The Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship will actively encourage individuals and groups to devote suitable resources of time, communication skills, organizing, and/or in-kind or financial contribution to help accomplish these goals.

APPROVED, by the Annual General Meeting of the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, held on the date:

___ April, of the year 2013.

___________________________

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{First-name Last-name}

President, Board of Trustees, of the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship
Bellingham , Washington