At times, immigration is a blessing both to the migrant and to the nation that adopts them. America’s scientific community has benefited from immigrants like Albert Einstein and Wernher von Braun. Hollywood has been enhanced by immigrants like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek.
But, like every good thing, bad people often take advantage of immigration. Illegal immigration has been a scourge on the United States for decades, reaching its nadir in the past 10 years. Illegal immigration, unlike legal immigration in which applicants are vetted to ensure proper identification and lack of criminal intent, is an offense that has been committed by tens of millions of people.
Fentanyl has flowed across our border in recent years, causing over 100,000 American deaths per year. Many illegal aliens have committed violent crimes against Americans, and the sheer number of illegal aliens currently in our country has overrun our schools, hospitals, housing, and job markets. America is a better place because of legal immigrants. But it’s being dismantled by unfettered, indiscriminate, unlimited, undocumented immigration.
When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he garnered headlines for his unconventional behavior and ideas, especially concerning this issue. One idea he proposed that few politicians had ever seriously pursued was a wall along the entire southern border. As often occurred during his pontificate, Pope Francis was asked by reporters for his thoughts on this development in US politics. As usual, Francis responded candidly and a bit impulsively: “A person who thinks only about building walls — wherever they may be — and not building bridges, is not Christian.”
When I first read this quote from Pope Francis, I immediately thought about Nehemiah, the man God selected to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem to protect his people returning from the Babylonian exile. I later learned that Pope Francis’ home, the Vatican, has walls. It’s a walled enclave within the city of Rome. The walls were built largely in the Middle Ages to defend the Vatican from invaders.
Throughout the Bible, we are commanded by God to love foreigners, who, like us, are made in the image of God. But nowhere does the Bible imply that countries are obligated to allow all foreigners in or tolerate illegal migration. Let us look to what Scripture has to say on the matter.
“You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” –Exodus 23:9
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a sojourn is “a short period when a person stays in a particular place.” This could perhaps be equated with the modern term “refugee.” It does not, however, refer to someone who snuck across a country’s border and insisted on their right to make a home there. And it certainly does not refer to those who commit crimes while in a foreign country. In fact, in the case of criminals who are convicted based on the testimony of multiple witnesses, God says: “You shall purge the evil from your midst” (Deuteronomy 17:7, 19:19, 21:21, and 22:21).
I understand the rhetoric of Pope Francis, Pope Leo, and the American bishops. I have no doubt they are good and virtuous men who said what they did because they truly care for the poor migrants who have fled their homes for one reason or another and want to live in America. I share their compassion and their desire to help migrants in accordance with Christian love.
But what does love look like in the case of illegal immigration? Here is an analogy that clarifies the issue for me: Christians are called to love the homeless. And how do we do this? We give them food and water, money for a hotel room, clothes and blankets for the cold nights. We pray for them, speak kindly to and about them, and volunteer at organizations like soup kitchens that provide the help they need.
However, as much as I love the homeless and want to help them, I have never invited a homeless man to stay in my house in the room next to my wife and daughters. Maybe it would be “loving” for me to do that, but I love my wife and daughters too much to put them at risk by inviting someone I don’t know or trust into our home. Maybe the homeless man would be completely harmless and kind, but if I don’t know him, I’m not willing to take that risk.
The same is true for the poor and downtrodden of the world. We have a responsibility to send aid to impoverished people in foreign countries, provide food for the hungry, clean water to the thirsty, and medicine for the sick. We have a duty as Christians to pray for those who are oppressed by corrupt foreign governments, that they might be free. And we owe it to the world’s poor to speak kindly about them, see them as our equals, and raise awareness about their conditions to those in power who can help. But it would be unwise to open America’s borders to any and everyone who wants to move here for a better life. It would cripple our country economically and put millions of Americans at risk of being harmed by those who come here with criminal intent. In the Kingdom of Heaven, there will be no borders. I long for the day people from all nations will be gathered there together. But in this fallen world of sin, borders are unfortunately necessary.
Everyone deserves a home. A home that’s safe. A home that’s theirs. A home they can afford, can raise their families in, and live out their days in peace. And most often, secure borders for all countries are the best paths toward achieving that reality for all.
Jonathan Kettler is a history teacher at Brandon High School.
