The Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society, and Bishop Elías Galván (retired) Executive Director of the Latino UMC caucus MARCHA (Metodistas Representando la Causa de los Hispanos Americanos) have issued a joint statement critical of U.S. Supreme Court’s 4-4 split decision that keeps intact the defeat in a lower court of President Barack Obama’s executive action on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).

“This split decision will result in the forced separation of families, and as United Methodists living out our faith in a global connection, we must prioritize keeping families together,” they wrote.  “The United Methodist Church is in “support of just and fair immigration policies that benefit and allow the family to preserve and maintain its unity” (2012 Book of Resolutions, “US Immigration and Family Unity”). They also cited the 2016 General Conference approval in May of the resolution “Welcoming the Migrant to the US,” which affirmed Obama’s contested executive action as a “necessary temporary step that allowed certain groups of immigrants to apply for temporary legal status, though not citizenship.”