New Immigration Reform Advocates Hope to Persuade Fellow Christians and Conservatives

by Dan Gilgoff, CNN

WASHINGTON, DC - A growing chorus of conservative evangelical leaders has broken with their traditional political allies on the right.

The group, which includes influential political activists such as Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy wing, and Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University School of Law, will soon begin lobbying Republican leaders in Washington to support comprehensive immigration reform under President Obama.

"After securing our borders, we must allow the millions of undocumented and otherwise law-abiding persons living in our midst to come out of the shadows," reads a recent draft of the document, which is still being finalized. "The pathway for earned legal citizenship or temporary residency should involve a program of legalization for undocumented persons in the United States."

Many conservatives say illegal immigrants should be forced to return to their home countries and start the process of legally coming to the US from scratch.

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