PLANO, TEXAS — More than 30- religious congregational representatives attended the Dallas Area Interfaith (DAI): Collin County Cluster seminar held at the West Plano Presbyterian Church.

DAI, a Dallas metropolitan organization, is made up of more than 60 religious congregations that focus on providing democratic solutions, as well as, bringing positive change in solving community issues.

The key issue governing the meeting was the challenges facing the community due to the lack of comprehensive immigration reform.

The seminar shone factual information regarding immigrants and their impact on the community in areas such as crime, the economy, cultural diversity and communication challenges. A key concept of the meeting was faith and respect for everyone regardless of legal status.

Bishop Kevin Kanouse of the Evangelical Lutheran church of America said that the majority of believers have a good vertical relationship with God but that more people need to have a horizontal relationship with others — in respect to people having their faith in the right place but not necessarily respecting and welcoming each and everyone.

The keynote speaker was Ernest Cortes — director of the Southwest Region of Industrial Area Foundation (IAF), a foundation that promotes social change. Cortes has analyzed factual information on immigrants and has found that immigrants are one of the principle thriving factors that make America an economic success. He explained that without the current population of immigrants the economy would collapse in a downward spiral.

Council members Sally Magnuson, Scott Johnson, Mabrie Jackson, Collin County Commissioner Phyllis Cole and Plano Chief of Police Gregory Rushin all stated that they where willing to work with DAI for a comprehensive approach to the immigration challenges that face the community.

Chief Rushin said a lot of success and improvement has come from a community program they adopted called Unidos, which is geared at improving the life of Hispanic residents. Unidos has helped promote trust between police and the Plano Hispanic community, therefore providing a safer environment for all the people in the community, which is the ultimate goal.

Public officials and clergy agreed that community is more important than regulating federal immigration issues. They believe the community would improve for everyone if a comprehensive immigration reform were adopted, due to the fact that many residents live in fear, and even endure hostile situations due to the fact that they live undocumented.