Care for the immigrants among us without promoting lawlessness

I’ve spent a good portion of my ministry years among minority and immigrant communities. During college, I spent three years ministering with a Hispanic community in southern California. While I lived in Washington, D.C., I served on an executive committee of a ministry seeking to outreach to a very diverse, multicultural community. Our ministry director was an immigrant from El Salvador and the ministry flourished in diversity.

America is a nation of immigrants who share a common bond and commitment to the founding principles that make this country great. Immigrants of the past not only sought to follow the rules when coming to America, they wanted to be Americans themselves and embrace our principles and values.

When I look at the immigration crisis facing our country, my heart breaks for the multitude of problems: the failure of socialist countries in Latin America, the poverty and violence that is leading people to risk their lives to reach America, the blatant willingness to break our laws, innocent Americans harmed by illegal immigrants, and the underground illegal communities that have formed in our country that are not assimilating.

Christian conservatives must take the biblical teaching to care for the immigrants in our midst more seriously. Repeatedly, God commands his people, “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21) He has similar words in Deuteronomy 27:19, Exodus 23:9, Ezekiel 22:7, Deuteronomy 10:18-19, Deuteronomy 24:14, Hebrews 13:2, Leviticus 23:22, Leviticus 25:35, Malachi 3:5, Psalm 146:9, Leviticus 19:33-34, Zechariah 7:9-11, Jeremiah 7:5-7, Deuteronomy 24:19-22.

God cares deeply for the foreigners in our land and we are to do so as well.

This mandate to care for foreigners must be met with a commitment to responsibility from the immigrants. The conversation about immigration is often only framed regarding the responsibility of Americans. The immigration crisis we are facing is the result of a systemic breakdown of responsibility on multiple levels.

First, America is a land of laws. If your first act in coming to America is to break our immigration laws, you are demonstrating to Americans that you don’t care to follow the rules. You don’t care about our principles or values, the very same principles that created this land of opportunity. You are fleeing a lawless land and bringing a similar lawlessness here.

Second, if you are coming to America as a refugee, it is critical that you abide by all requirements imposed by the U.S. government. You must show up for your court date, you must follow our laws. You cannot abuse the asylum or refugee process.

Third, President Trump is right when he says border security is national security. And he’s right for many different reasons. There is too much crime, too many drugs, too much human suffering, too much chaos at our borders. We are facing a humanitarian crisis and for the sake of American citizens and refugees, our immigration law enforcement must be strengthened.

Fourth, politicians who create sanctuary cities or states are threatening the safety of their citizens and flagrantly ignoring federal immigration law. Sanctuary cities are failures of government responsibility for political gain and it is shameful.

For the immigrants who seek to become Americans, who have followed the rules, who obey our laws, who wish to better their lives and the lives of their families with the American dream, conservatives should support them with open arms. We need to be better in our churches and in our communities of welcoming and loving America’s immigrants.

The failure of responsibility by illegal immigrants and politicians has led to the immigration crisis. Open borders and weak immigration laws are not the solution. Personal responsibility, obeying the rule of law, strengthening our borders, and caring for the legal immigrants in our midst is the solution.