Illegal Aliens as missionaries?

[_zzyzx]

Title 8 of the US Code as currently published by the US Government reflects the laws passed by Congress as of Jan. 8, 2008, and it is this version that is published here.
§ 1324. Bringing in and harboring certain aliens
(a) Criminal penalties
(1)
(A) Any person who—
(i) knowing that a person is an alien, brings to or attempts to bring to the United States in any manner whatsoever such person at a place other than a designated port of entry or place other than as designated by the Commissioner, regardless of whether such alien has received prior official authorization to come to, enter, or reside in the United States and regardless of any future official action which may be taken with respect to such alien;
(ii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport or move such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of law;
(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;
(iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law; or
(v)
(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or
(II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,
shall be punished as provided in subparagraph (B).
(B) A person who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs—
(i) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i) or (v)(I) or in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), or (iv) in which the offense was done for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain, be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both;
(ii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), (iv), or (v)(II), be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;
(iii) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v) during and in relation to which the person causes serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of title 18) to, or places in jeopardy the life of, any person, be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and
(iv) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v) resulting in the death of any person, be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined under title 18, or both.
(C) It is not a violation of clauses [1] (ii) or (iii) of subparagraph (A), or of clause (iv) of subparagraph (A) except where a person encourages or induces an alien to come to or enter the United States, for a religious denomination having a bona fide nonprofit, religious organization in the United States, or the agents or officers of such denomination or organization, to encourage, invite, call, allow, or enable an alien who is present in the United States to perform the vocation of a minister or missionary for the denomination or organization in the United States as a volunteer who is not compensated as an employee, notwithstanding the provision of room, board, travel, medical assistance, and other basic living expenses, provided the minister or missionary has been a member of the denomination for at least one year.

[_karl61]

do you know of cases where the Church sneaks in people to do missionary service? I have not heard about this. I hope they get passports and time specifications before they arrive.

[_silentkid]

I've been on a break from the board (and will fall into obscurity again after this post) but I figured I'd post on this topic because I have direct experience with it. When I was a missionary in El Paso, Texas in the mid-90s, I had a companion who was an illegal (he was already in the US with fake documentation prior to being "called"). The mission president knew of his status as did his stake president who did his pre-mission interviews. I wasn't told about it when he was made my companion. He ended up telling me after a few days. I was personally aquainted with many members who worked for the border patrol. We avoided going to dinner with those families. It put some serious tension in our companionship. I confronted the mission president about it and he did nothing. There was no official church policy in place to deal with it. I always thought the "we obey the laws of the land" article of faith to be sufficient. I wonder if anything has changed since my experience.

[_karl61]

all throughout the history of the church it has been on the wrong side of the law. New York - getting paid to look for treasure, Ohio - Banking, Missouri - crossing county lines with arms, treason, burglary, murder; Illinois: bigamy, adultery, destruction of property Utah: bigamy, obstruction of justice.

[_Analytics]

I've been on a break from the board (and will fall into obscurity again after this post) but I figured I'd post on this topic because I have direct experience with it. When I was a missionary in El Paso, Texas in the mid-90s...

I was there as a missionary five years earlier, and a Sister missionary in my district actually got deported!

I don' think the church sneaks people across borders, but my understanding is that "illegal aliens" who are already here do get called to state-side missions.

[_bcspace]

I don't believe the Church has a responsibility to research it's members to see if they are illegal. But I do believe they have an obligation to report illegals when any are known and apply disciplinary action with regards to their membership where applicable.

[_Paul Osborne]

I don't think ilegals should be baptized in a land they are not suppose to be in. Send them back to their home countries to join the church.

Paul O