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Published: Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 6:01 a.m. Last Modified: Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 7:40 p.m.

In the State of the Union address and the Republican response, President Obama and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers each identified immigration reform as a priority. Just a few days later, House Republicans released their Standards for Immigration Reform, another sign of bipartisan support for this critical issue.

But since then, Speaker John Boehner has expressed doubt about the path forward for reform. As an evangelical pastor in Florida, I pray that leaders will overcome such doubt, and I wholeheartedly support movement on immigration reform.

Immigrants contribute to the growth and prosperity of Gainesville and of our nation. Almost all economists agree that immigrantsand undocumented immigrants specifically have a net positive impact on our economy. Reform would provide an economic stimulus that would not cost a dime of taxpayer money, helping to reduce our deficit.

Immigrants' contributions are not merely economic, though: As a pastor, I also see the plethora of ways that immigrants have helped to build our local church. Our congregation, like thousands of others across the U.S., equips its members many of whom are immigrants to live out our mission of sharing God's love in our community. We need a system that works better for immigrants themselves and for our churches, our national security and our economy.

As a Christian, I know God calls me both to welcome the stranger (Matthew 25) and to uphold the rule of law (Romans 13). Our current dysfunctional immigration laws make it impossible to do either well. They force our hard-working neighbors to live in the shadows, keeping them vulnerable to crime, labor exploitation and even human trafficking.

Indiscriminate deportations have torn families apart, hurting families that were once economically self-sufficient. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizen children have experienced the deportation of a parent in the past several years, a reality that I and many other pastors have witnessed firsthand. Our laws must be amended to be more welcoming and family friendly.

Our system also fails to honor the law. Our archaic laws are entirely out of synch with the needs of a dynamic labor market and thus are sporadically enforced. We need a solution that restores the rule of law, providing the opportunity for undocumented immigrants to make things right by paying a penalty and proving over a probationary period that they will work for the privilege of American citizenship.

That also will allow us to separate out those few who have committed serious criminal offenses who should be deported from the majority whose only offense has been a violation of civil immigration law, for whom a fine is an appropriate penalty. We're not advocating for amnesty, but for accountability. The only real amnesty on the table is the status quo.

Thankfully, Republican leaders in Congress have shown signs that immigration reform including further securing our borders and giving aspiring Americans the opportunity to earn legal status is a priority. They must move forward, and they will do so with support among voters across the spectrum, including conservatives and evangelicals as polls show.

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Mark Vega: Immigration reform would help our economy, community