The Immigration Problem - A Biblical Perspective on the Treatment of "Aliens"

Immigration, especially the illegal kind, is a hot topic in our current political situation in the U.S. and will likely grow into a key point of contention in this November's elections. As such, I thought it would be a good topic to explore from a Christian/Biblical perspective. In order to do this, I have done a short (which is to say "not exhaustive") word study of the English word "alien" in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. I also thought to study the word "foreigner" but found that it was not used often in a context other than a description of the spiritual state of believers in this world. So, I will display my findings on what can be said about treatment of aliens and what cannot be said first before attempting to frame a larger discussion of our current problem and what might be done about it.

First, there are several injunctions in the text about the treatment of aliens living among the Hebrew people. In Exodus 22:21 and 23:9, God tells the people to not mistreat or oppress aliens among them because they were once aliens among the Egyptians and were not well treated. In Leviticus 24:22, God requires the same laws to be used with both native-born Hebrews and aliens. I think we can imply that this also means that they were to be applied equally, as well. In Psalm 146:9, God is said to watch over the alien. In addition, we Christians are described as aliens in this world by Peter in I Peter 2:11.

Additionally, the Hebrew culture was not closed to outsiders. There are numerous examples of foreigners who found a place among the Hebrews and were eventually assimilated. Among them are: Ruth, Rahab, and several of David's mighty men, just to name a few. From this, we can see a readiness to accept foreigners, assuming that they were willing to enter into the Covenant.

From these observations about aliens, we can understand that God desires us to apply our laws as evenly as possible and not discriminate against an alien living in our nation. However, I would like to draw a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants that comes from the difference in political structures between a 1000 B.C. Hebrew people and our 21st century selves. In that time, the idea of the nation-state did not exist. In fact, much of the world was unclaimed wilderness through which any person could rightfully travel without fear of retribution from the owner, since there was none. Because of this, an alien living among the Hebrews would not ever have been thought of as illegal, as there was no border to have illegally crossed. However, today's world is much different. There is not one spot (other than Antarctica and who wants to live there!) that is not owned by some nation, and the borders between nations are clearly marked for all. In addition, we have all set up laws to govern the admission of people into countries, for all sorts of valid reasons. Therefore, I would like to say that the primary focus of the Biblical teachings on aliens are properly applied to legal immigrants and not illegal immigrants. This is not to say that we should mistreat illegal immigrants or oppress them, but they should be treated as people who do not belong precisely because of the manner of their arrival. I find the Biblical warrant for this in the many teachings calling for Christians to be lawful people, as well as the fact that our God is Himself a law-giver who expects laws to be obeyed. Illegal immigration may touch on many problems, such as economics, cultural/social issues, demographics, and the war on terror, but I think it is primarily a problem of crime. We have a law that details how a person can legally enter our country, and some people have chosen to enter the country in an unlawful way.

So, just what can be done about this problem? First, I think that we need to deal seriously with the influx across the border with Mexico. (I realize that the northern border with Canada is not particularly secure, either, but also understand that the vast majority of illegal immigrants come across the southern border, making of primary importance.) I would see an immediate military deployment to the border to last until police forces can be beefed up to deal with the problem. It is important for police to be the ultimate guardians of the border because, as I said above, this is a problem of crime and because military forces are not really trained for this sort of duty and will tend to excess by their nature as war-makers.

Second, I think a long, critical look must be taken at our mechanisms for legally entering the country. I have heard many people argue that the system is too slow and difficult and that this actually contributes to illegal immigration because it is much easier than the red tape. I tend to believe these arguments because of my understanding of normal government practice. Our government is not quick on much of anything and finds all sorts of ways to make simple things difficult. So, I think this system should be streamlined, though while still maintaining some checks to prevent certain types of people from entering the country, such as convicted criminals, known terrorists, etc. However, in keeping with the command from Leviticus 24, we must not discriminate in our immigration system on the basis of race, as has been the case in U.S. history.

Thirdly, even though it is a crime to enter the country illegally, we cannot realistically arrest and jail all of the millions of illegal immigrants now in the country. That would require more resources than could possibly be available. Alternately, we also do not have the wherewithal to eject all of those people from the country, both because we couldn't find and arrest them all and because many businesses, as has been claimed, would fail without their labor. So, a system must be put into place that makes these illegal immigrants into something else. I would not see an amnesty that conveys citizenship on all of them because it would only encourage more illegal immigrants, rewards criminality, and is basically unfair, especially to those who have pursued immigration legally. I would rather see a guestworker system put into place. This would allow illegal immigrants to obtain working papers for a limited time, such as two or three years, after which they would have to either apply for full citizenship in the normal way or leave to return to their nations of origin. This project would have a short sign-up period of maybe three months for illegal immigrants to register with the government after which they would be considered criminals to be deported immediately upon capture. In addition, severe penalties would have to be put into place for any company employing illegal immigrants who do not have working papers. I think this plan, while not perfect, would be advantageous for all - the immigrants would not immediately be deported but would have time to earn some money which would stand them in good stead in their homelands, the government would know where these people are and be able to tax them in order to make up for the medical and education expenses they are already incurring on our society, businesses would be required to treat all of their employees equally without their illegal status to hold over them, and our national security interests would be better served. I think it would ultimately help us to treat immigrants to our nation fairly and without oppression, as called for in the Bible, and to uphold lawful lives, also an interest of the Bible.

Well, those are my ideas, though most are not original to me. Tell me what you think.