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One of the biggest boosts to the immigration movement in recent years has been growing support from evangelicals.

As the numbers of Latinos and immigrants of various races and ethnicities have grown, so has the potential for expansion of U.S. evangelical congregations.

So the attempt by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to appeal to evangelical voters on whom he has pinned his presidential aspirations raises the question of whether he can woo this electorate even with his tough stance on immigration.

A Cruz campaign spokeswoman did not respond to a request from NBC News for comment. But while Cruz has taken a generally hardline approach on immigration reform, evangelicals have become activists on the issue in Washington and from the pulpit. Over time, congregations and evangelical leaders have subjected their thinking on immigration and in particular on immigrants who are not legally in the country to the "What Would Jesus Do?" test.

Those who have decided that Christ's teaching call for more than deportation have taken significant steps. They have formed a group, the Evangelical Immigration Table, around the issue. That group paid for and ran newspaper and radio ads aimed at House Speaker John Boehner last year as the House dragged its feet on immigration reform legislation. Group leaders also teamed with Roman Catholic bishops in an open letter to House members urging them to get moving on immigration reform.

The Evangelical Immigration Table includes Liberty Counsel, chaired and founded by Matthew Staver, dean of the law school at Liberty University, the Jerry Falwell-founded school where Cruz announced his candidacy.

"It goes to the consistency of our mission and our identity as evangelicals," said Jenny Yang, director of advocacy and policy for World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Officials from NAE were on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, Cruz's activity on immigration reform has conflicted with the forward movement on immigration reform that evangelicals have wanted.

Cruz led the efforts last December to use a funding bill to repeal President Barack Obama's immigration executive action programs. He opposed the Senate-passed "Gang of Eight" comprehensive immigration reform bill and a Republican plan to give probationary legal status to immigrants while the border was being secured.

The rest is here:
What Would Ted Cruz Do, Ask Pro-Immigration Evangelicals?

Georgia legislators rejected a measure Tuesdaythat would have prohibited undocumented immigrants benefiting under President Barack Obama executive immigration actions from getting a state drivers license. With a 27-16 vote, the Georgia Senate defeated a Republican floor amendment that aimed to extend an active ban on drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants to those who have received deferred action on their status in the country, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. The Georgia lawmakers then passed an underlying bill that brings drivers license regulations into compliance with federal law.

Sen. Josh McKoon, the Republican who proposed the amendment, said undocumented immigrants were costing Georgia $2.4 billion per year and sought to discourage illegal immigration by imposing a ban on licenses. Democrats in the Georgia Senate who opposed the measure argued that it was unfair to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children by their parents and are now enrolled in school or working and paying taxes.

This is going after college students ... [and] members of the military who are not here because of any action of their own, said Sen.Curt Thompson, a Democrat. Other opponents said business leaders in Georgia were not supportive of the Republican proposal, the Chronicle reported. International corporations who have their North American headquarters here feel this is very ill-advised legislation, said Sen.Nan Orrock, a Democrat.

Drivers licenses and municipal ID cards are available to undocumented immigrants in more than a dozen states and cities in the U.S. In January, California, which has the country's largest undocumented immigrant population, became the 10th state to allow them to drive legally. Other states granting licenses to undocumented immigrants include Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico and Utah. Also in January, New York City launched the nations most ambitious municipal ID program, extending them to all residents without regard to immigration status. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New Haven, Connecticut, are among other cities with similar municipal ID programs.

Read more here:
Immigration Reform 2015: Georgia Lawmakers Defeat Driver's License Ban For Undocumented Immigrants Under Obama Relief

The heady sense of victory immigrant rights activists had last year after President Obama announced his deportation amnesty has faded in recent weeks as the advocates sense theyve lost ground among the very Democratic leaders they were counting on to deliver at the national and state levels.

The latest blow came over the weekend in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has scrapped plans for a state-level Dream Act granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants as part of the budget spawning a hunger strike from young illegal immigrants who expected him to come through.

Nationally, meanwhile, Mr. Obama is taking fire after his immigration service earlier this month deported a Mennonite pastor with American citizen children who had been living without authorization for years, but who came to agents attention because of a drunken driving conviction from the 1990s.

SEE ALSO: Immigration agency says original amnesty still approving Dreamers applications

Activists said that deportation broke the rules Mr. Obama himself laid out in November, when he said he wanted to kick out felons, not families.

It goes to who really are our champions. Thats disillusioning a lot of the electorate, said Cesar Vargas, co-director of the Dream Action Coalition. Democrats would like to make people believe that Republicans have a Latino problem. Well, Democrats are definitely facing a Latino problem that many of them arent even aware of.

The relationship between the president and immigrant rights advocates has always been rocky, dating back to his vote as a senator to build the border fence, and then extending to his failure to make good on his campaign promise to tackle immigration reform his first year in office.

Mr. Obama had appeared to smooth things over in November when he bypassed Congress and announced executive actions to grant a temporary deportation amnesty and work permits to millions of immigrants in the country illegally. At the same time Mr. Obama also announced new enforcement priorities that were supposed to lower the chances of deportation for millions of other illegal immigrants though they would not be eligible for the work permits included in his broader amnesty.

Buoyed by that success, and by polls that suggest the public is increasingly accepting of legalizing illegal immigrants, activists turned to states, pressing for legislation to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, known as the Dream Act.

New York was a particular target, with a Democratic governor in Mr. Cuomo vowing to use the state budget to make it happen this year.

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Immigration activists disillusioned with Obama, Democrats as amnesty afterglow fades

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