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Associated Press
PITTSBURGH – United Methodist bishops were wrong to accuse U.S. immigration officials of racism for denying nonimmigrant visas to more than 20 Philippine and African delegates to a church conference, a State Department official said.
Retired Methodist Bishop Marshall Meadors on Tuesday said the immigration “policies or the application of these policies are racist and unjust.” Meadors, who is white, was joined by two black bishops and one bishop from the Philippines, who criticized the government for not issuing the visas.
The bishops said 42 foreign delegates were denied visas to attend the worldwide General Conference, which is held once every four years. Some alternate delegates were granted visas and some delegates got visas after applying a second time, but 25 delegates – all nonwhites from poorer countries – still can’t attend the conference which runs through May 7 in Pittsburgh.
People seeking nonimmigrant visas must demonstrate strong ties to their home country – family, property, a job – so there’s reason to believe they will return, State Department officials said Thursday.
The visa applications won’t be reconsidered, because the rejections were based on long-established rules, said Stewart Patt, the spokesman for the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.
“The fact that these are people of color is absolutely, completely irrelevant, but the question of their economic means may not be irrelevant,” Patt said. “We’ve had people come for religious conferences before that don’t (go) back home because they don’t have jobs waiting for them and they perceive they have more opportunity here.”
The bishops said the delegates have been shut out of their own church. But Patt said the reason for the visa request isn’t “as significant as whether the person is likely to return home.”
Patt said he’s particularly familiar with the Philippines because he was formerly the bureau’s chief of nonimmigrant visas at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. Philippine delegates to religious conferences have often been denied visas, Patt said.
“That doesn’t make it right,” United Methodist spokesman Stephen Drachler, who acknowledged that he wasn’t aware of bishops protesting the visa issue at past conferences.
At their news conference, the bishops suggested President Bush and Vice President Cheney – both United Methodists – should investigate the situation and intervene.
“I won’t speculate on (the bishops’) motives” for complaining of racism during this year’s conference, Patt said. “But I think that the charge of things being based on anything other than economic factors is uncalled for.”
At the conference on Thursday, delegates to the Committee on Church and Society recommended joining a boycott against Taco Bell. Other religious, student and workers groups have protested the plight of migrant workers who pick the restaurant’s tomatoes in Florida.
The General Conference is expected to approve the recommendation next week.