Specically, the group said the prayer vigils are being held in the hopes of spurring Congress to pass an immigration reform bill.

According to the Religion News Service, leaders from the group joined with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., to urge the government to stop deporting illegal immigrants and focus on more pressing security threats.

“Go after those who are a threat, but leave our families alone until this Congress, and very importantly, this president, fulfills his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, so that we don’t have these problems anymore,” the Rev. Miguel Gutierrez, president of the national coalition, said.

The RNS reports that Gutierrez said the prayer vigils will continue once a month, plus town hall meetings and legislative hearings will be held across the country by the Hispanic Congressional Caucus to collect petitions and gather testimonies about what Gutierrez called a “broken immigration system.”

When the first anniversary of Oklahoma’s immigration reform law rolled around last month, the Rev. Bill Pruett said he had not seen as many undocumented immigrants deported as he envisioned when it went into affect last year.

But Pruett, pastor of St. Peter Catholic Church in Guymon, said the law still engenders widespread fear among immigrants in his

He said the anxiety level is such that Hispanic immigrants are continuing to leave Guymon in droves.

“With the possibility of being discovered, there is fear,” Pruett said.

House Bill 1804, authored by Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, became law on Nov. 1, 2007. The law makes it a felony to knowingly transport illegal immigrants, creates barriers to hiring illegal immigrants and requires proof of citizenship to receive certain governmental benefits or a driver’s license.

Terrill could not be reached for comment for this posting. 

Meanwhile, a

Still, the Rev. Perla Martinez-Goody, an associate pastor at San Mateo Fellowship, a Hispanic ministry of First United Methodist Church of Pauls Valley, said many immigrants have left her city, pulling their children out of school and heading back to their native lands or other states.

She said the exodus due to fear is almost as bad as deportation.

“It’s sad to watch them dismantle their homes.”

The Rev. Leonel Blanco, pastor of Santa Maria Virgen Mision Church in south

Recently the Episcopal priest said members who chose to leave the state are greatly missed because many of them had been with the ministry for a long time and were heavily involved in the church.

Blanco, originally from

The clergy members said they see the immigration reform law as punitive and uncharitable to hardworking people trying to make a better life for their families.

 “I see the faces behind the word ‘immigration’ — women, children, men, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. People seem to forget that,” Martinez-Goody said.

Pruett and Martinez-Goody said they hold out hope the law will be repealed and another solution more in keeping with biblical principles of compassion will be found.

“The immigration system needs an overhaul from top to bottom,” Pruett said. “Hopefully whoever gets in the White House will have the courage to do that.”

Martinez-Goody said: “I still pray that the Lord will touch the hearts of the politicians.”

Blanco said more than ever, he is encouraging Hispanic Americans to vote to make sure their voices are heard on such issues as immigration reform.

“That’s the only way our voices are going to be heard,” he said. 

BACKGROUND

Last year, clergy opposition against House Bill 1804 gained momentum as the bill was set to become law.

Carla Hinton

Religion Editor