The clarion cries for the abolishment of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the latest Supreme Court ruling on President Trump’s travel ban, and the recent border crisis reveal just how difficult the issue immigration is to decipher. How are we as Christians to perceive the immigration problems facing our country? Do we err on the side of compassion above national security? Does our Christian duty to strangers transcend our obligation to obey the law of the land? Is this about protecting our borders or religious exclusionism? I think there are four factors that need to be understood by believers so that we may confidently address these issues without them dividing us.

The Factor of Politicization

Politicization is the exploitation of social or cultural problems for political gain. It’s hard to discern whether the staged protests around the country, along with major media reporting, are more about animosity towards Trump than about immigration policy itself. From every angle, liberal voices are now denouncing the administration’s enforcement of current immigration policy. In the attempt to spark outrage, social media has been used dishonestly to portray what is happening at our borders. And, in an election year, politicians on both the right and the left will use immigrants as political fodder to gain an edge for themselves.

We need to be careful not to allow ourselves to be swayed by politicization and media bias. As believers, we understand that immigrants are people for whom Jesus died. Our first concern for anyone coming to America should be their relationship with God. The Bible says that the Lord “executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19)

The Factor of Law

As Christians, we are commanded by Scripture to be “subject to governing authorities.” (Romans 13:1-7) The fact is, the president has acted within the perimeters granted him by the constitution and which the Supreme Court upheld. Christians must realize that entering our country illegally is a crime. Furthermore, it is not our job to sort through the myriad of cases to determine who and who is not here legitimately. That is the government’s responsibility.

I am not implying that believers may not legitimately disagree, protest, and express their opposition to government. We have that right as Americans. What I am saying is that when the authorities that be legitimately set policy it is our Christian duty to submit. At this point, Christians need to understand that there is no evidence whatsoever that our president has acted contrary to the law of the land, but rather, is being vilified for enforcing it. Christians must not condemn authorities God has established for our good.

Granted, it remains difficult to know what we should do about illegal immigration. Dr. John Piper offered this opinion: “I would like to see us as a country find a way to provide for illegal immigrants to stay but still have them pay a reasonable penalty.” Again, we can disagree on this without being divisive and without expressing contempt for governmental authority.

The Factor of Compassion

It really is amazing how spiritual politicians get during a crisis involving children. Even more amazing is how the media misrepresents what has really taken place on our southern border. We hear of children being ripped from their parents’ arms and kept in cages like animals. Politicians grab the spotlight to quote Jesus and express Christian compassion for the precious innocents caught up in the border crisis. “Where’s the compassion?” they cry.

How should Christians think and act toward those who illegally enter our country? Should they be reported as criminals? Should they be given safe harbor among us? For the believer it comes down to this; whenever we encounter strangers we don’t know, people who are different from us, or anyone in need, we should count them as our neighbor. In scripture, a neighbor is anyone in need who crosses our path. All people, whether here legally or illegally, should be treated with Christian compassion.

All people, whether here legally or illegally, should be treated with Christian compassion.

However, we must also show compassion for the victims of illegal immigration. For example, the Texas Department of Public Safety reports that between June 1, 2011 and June 30, 2018,173,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 269,000 criminal offenses, including homicide, drugs, and sexual assault. As the report notes, “These figures…identifies thousands of crimes that should not have occurred and thousands of victims that should not have been victimized because the perpetrator should not be here.”

What makes this such a difficult issue is that the victimization runs both ways. Children who were brought here illegally by their parents are as much victims as those Americans who have suffered at the hands of illegal immigrants. This fact alone should keep Christians from becoming divisive. Our sympathy for those abused and injured by immigration extends in both directions.

The Factor of Discrimination

It would be naïve to think racial and religious discrimination has not tainted this crisis. Melissa Borja, assistant professor in American Culture at the University of Michigan, has written a piece for the Anxious Bench contending the president’s travel ban is religious exclusionism. She wants her readers to think that Trump, under the guise of national security, is just really expressing his contempt for both Muslims and Hispanics.

Regarding the recent Supreme Court ruling, Justice Sotomayor’s dissent noted: “The United States of America is a nation built upon the promise of religious liberty. [This ruling] fails to safeguard that fundamental principle. … This ban was motivated by hostility and animus toward the Muslim faith and was an exclusionary policy of sweeping proportion…rooted in dangerous stereotypes about, inter alia, a particular group’s supposed inability to assimilate and desire to harm the United States.”

We cannot deny the facts of history: America demonstrates that both racial and religious discrimination has impacted national policy as far back as the 19th century. But if we’re going to be realistic about immigration in the 21st century, we must understand that we live in a post 9/11 world. As Christians, we understand that racism is sinful and has no place in our faith. Every individual is created in the Imago Dei and therefore matters to God. (Genesis 1:27)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. -Ephesians 2:19

The gospel of Jesus Christ calls for reconciliation and cross-cultural love. (Ephesians 2:11-22) People from every nation, tribe, and tongue will make up the bride of Christ in glory. (Revelation 7:9) The only real solution to the immigration crisis in America is the transforming grace of God. Our racial, cultural, and ethnic differences melt away in the light of Calvary’s love.

In her article, Ms. Borja poses an interesting question: “Will white evangelicals eventually counter the virulent anti-immigration politics of our current moment, or will they opt instead to go down the well-trod path of religious and racial nativism?” To answer her question, I say neither. Rather, there is a third choice: To demonstrate Christ’s love to all and to share the gospel as we have opportunities. For us, it’s never a choice toward animus or revolution, but a determination to display compassion and share the gospel.