We evangelical Christians should advocate for immigrants, too

This month, I traveled to Washington, D.C., at the invitation of the National Association of Evangelicals to speak to my elected officials on the topic of immigration reform. We specifically focused our conversations around the need for a permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, including those who have benefited from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. but offered only temporary legal status.

As an evangelical pastor, I am compelled to advocate on the basis of my faith convictions, rooted in the precepts and practices of Jesus, who declared, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” in Matthew 25:35. To trace the foundation of this work even deeper, it stems from the same root that compels me to advocate for the unborn: the truth from Genesis 1:27 that all people are made in the image of God and are thus endowed with dignity, worth and value.

Interestingly enough, I was in Washington advocating for immigration reform the same day the draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Roe vs. Wade was leaked. I say “interestingly” because within the Christian world view, both are pro-life issues.

Unfortunately this is not often how these issues are framed in the public square or fit within the political zeitgeist of our cultural moment.

More often than not, abortion and immigration are fundamentally seen as partisan issues, with the former primarily the concern of Republicans and the latter the concern of Democrats.

Yet within the biblical world view, there is no such line of ideological demarcation. Both are matters of biblical justice and are worthy of attention, advocacy and action.

While most evangelicals have no need to be convinced that advocating for the unborn is an inherently Christian concern — and most in the broader culture expect that position from us, whether they share our convictions or not — the same cannot be said as confidently regarding the work of welcoming and caring for the immigrant. This is perplexing to me, because the Scriptures repeat countless times the importance of seeking justice for the foreigner. Those commands often are tied directly to the heart of God and the identity of God’s people.

Leviticus 19:34 tells us: “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 in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

This is why — as a Christian, an evangelical pastor and a Kansan — I am compelled to advocate both for the “Value Them Both” amendment at the state level here in Kansas, which seeks to protect vulnerable women and unborn children, and for federal policies such as the Dream Act, which would allow DACA recipients and other Dreamers to apply for permanent legal status.

While they may appear to be ideologically opposed to one another, based upon the polarized partisan perspectives we tend to view all issues through, the faithful follower of Jesus sees no tension in standing for them both.

After speaking with Kansas’ two U.S. senators, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, I was encouraged to know that they too desire to see a bipartisan bill to allow a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. I urged them to put those sentiments into action and to collaborate with senators in both parties to actually pass legislation. And my hope is that a Dreamer solution would be just a start, building the will for bipartisan solutions for broader immigration reforms. Maybe that makes me a dreamer, too.