Vilifying immigrants is not reform. And it’s not Christian. Separating children and parents, detaining people in overcrowded cages, shipping them to prisons overseas—all with no due process—it feels so unAmerican and unChristian. A lesson Christians should know well because there was another child who was a refugee in a desert with his family, fleeing an authoritarian government. Imagine a young Jesus locked up in a cage and separated from his parents
Most of us cannot fathom how difficult life must be for someone to choose to flee the only home, family, community and culture they know. Add to it the dangers of the unknown. The US-Mexico border is the deadliest land route on record, due in large part to the harsh desert conditions. Then imagine arriving in a place with barely more than the clothes on your back, a language you don’t speak, a culture you don’t know, and a country who calls you a terrorist.
Pope Francis said migrants “represent the suffering body of Christ when they are forced to leave their country, to face the risks and tribulations of a difficult journey, when they find no other way out.” They are “the face of Christ,” to whom the Church is to offer “relief and hope.” Immigration is our shared story. “The history of mankind is the history of migrations on every latitude; there is no people that has not known the migratory phenomenon.”
Christianity could not be clearer. We are given the instruction dozens of times, from Leviticus to Matthew, “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself for you were strangers…” [Leviticus 19:33-34]. “I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” [Matthew 25]. (Just to list a couple).
This “hospitality” we are called to is beautifully defined in Jesus’ instruction to not see the other, but to see yet another image of God—and opportunity to share God’s love more fully.
Churches have a long history of offering compassion and safety. By the end of the 4th century under Roman rule, it was a religious practice for churches to provide safe sanctuary to vulnerable fugitives running from cruel punishments. That tradition continues today. Faith-based organizations will always provide care for migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, including Christians escaping persecution for their beliefs. It is one of the surest signs that we are well-rooted in the teachings and love of Jesus.
“Love your neighbor” means love your next door neighbor and protect them from the rest. Because the rest are violent, dirty, job-stealing criminals. Immigration reform should have government agencies go city-by-city, turn neighbor against neighbor; conduct raids and round ups in homes, workplaces, and churches. Then with no due process, separate families; lock people in overcrowded mass internment camps; and deport them no matter the dangers.
The terrible truth is, the harder we make immigration, the more human trafficking cartels benefit, and the more people are assaulted and die in the dangerous conditions that lead them to our borders.
We cannot turn a blind eye to these harms, nor to vile policies that raid schools, workplaces, and houses of worship, round up and imprison people with no due process, separate and deport family members, and turn neighbors into snitches. These policies do not provide needed reforms but they do accomplish an unspoken goal: to provoke fear of “the other” with grievously misleading information. So let’s clear that up, and since the Biblical text doesn’t track that kind of data, we’ll leave the texts for a moment.
“Immigration fuels the economy.” That’s what the George W. Bush Institute says and economists agree. “When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP. Their incomes rise, but so do those of natives. That’s the phenomenon dubbed the ‘immigration surplus’.” Contrary to popular propaganda, immigrants don’t take our jobs because they flow to “industries and areas where there is a relative need for workers—where bottlenecks or shortages might otherwise damp growth.” Need for workers will only grow as our nation’s population ages.
As for those so-called “skyrocketing” crime rates, immigrants are “60% less likely to be incarcerated than the U.S.-born,” according to a comprehensive study by Stanford and Northwestern Universities. In fact, “first-generation immigrants have not been more likely to be imprisoned than people born in the United States since 1880.”
The very essence of Jesus’ teachings is to treat the sojourner with welcome and respect. That must include secular and faith-based groups that care for migrants, too. They are consistently targets of harassment and violence, accused of everything from child sex trafficking to not being real Christians. As Deuteronomy 27:19 makes so clear, “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen’.”
Maybe we all need to say “Amen” and remind ourselves that not only was Jesus a refugee, our Christian history and our family histories are rooted in immigration. The result has been one of America’s greatest strengths. Let’s be sure immigration reform is real reform based on real data and not harnful propaganda meant to scare Christians into supporting very un-Christ-like policies.
As all the data show, immigration brings concrete economic and social benefits to our country. Everyone agrees—immigration reform is needed, so let’s be wise about it. Let’s be Christian about it.
Our society and Christianity have flourished in our nation of immigrants and together we built a country that became the envy of the world. If it’s difficult to wrap your head around the hate and dehumanization aimed at immigrants, it should be. Leaders who tell us to fear a false enemy do so because holding onto power through fear and division is time-tested and incredibly effective.
It’s time for Christians to embrace immigrants and show them the love and care Jesus calls us to abundantly share. Our spiritual DNA is that of immigrants. Jesus may be the world’s most famous refugee [Matthew 2:13-23], but we were all strangers in a strange land [Exodus 22:21].
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