Politics

Is president Trump and Evangelical supporters on the wrong side of the Immigration debate?

by Robert Randle
04/05/18
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Donald Trump as president-Elect promised to build a Wall and Mexico was going to pay for it. A little over a year and nothing but a few larger-than-life pillars, but no 'wall.' And besides all that, our southernmost neighbor says they aren't going to pay for it. The thing is, though, militarizing our borders is not the answer and setting immigration policy is the purview of Congress (Article 1, Section 8); not by presidential Executive Order. “Wikipedia” mentions that the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) administered federal immigration laws and regulations including the Immigration and Nationality Act (Title 8, United States Code).

In the early 1900s Congress's primary interest in immigration was to protect American workers and wages. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was formed in 1933 by a merger of the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization; both agencies were under the Department of Labor. President Franklin Roosevelt moved the INS from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice in 1940. On March 1, 2003, most of the INS functions ceased to exist, becoming 3 new entities as they are today- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – within the newly created Department of Homeland Security.

Now that the historical part of immigration has been established, let's look at some passages from the Old Testament for the benefit of Christian Evangelicals who don't support amnesty for DACA (“Dreamers”) as well as are hardened to the breakup of families and want protection from dangerous persons (criminals, drug dealers, rapists), migrant laborers, hospitality industry/service workers).

Genesis 20: 1
Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar. While living there as a foreigner (undocumented illegal/resident alien). NLT

Genesis 21: 34
After this, Abraham resided as a foreigner in Philistine territory for a long period of time.ISV

Exodus 12: 49
The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you."NIV

Exodus 22: 21
"You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners (illegal aliens) in the land of Egypt.NLT

Leviticus 19: 33-34a
‘When a stranger (foreigner/illegal alien) resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong (injustice).‘The stranger (legal resident/undocumented citizen??) who resides with you shall be to you as the native (or naturalized citizen; in the modern sense) among you,

Deuteronomy 24: 14
"Never take advantage of poor and destitute laborers, whether they are fellow Israelites or foreigners living in your towns. NLT

Deuteronomy 27: 19
'The one who denies justice to a resident alien, a fatherless child, or a widow is cursed.' And all the people will say, 'Amen!'CSB

1 Chronicles 22: 2
So David gave orders to gather the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, and he set stone cutters to hew out stones to build the house of God.

NOTE: Some of these resident aliens were highly skilled Masons, which means they knew mathematics, engineering, architectural drawing, blueprint reading, calculus and not criminals or low-skilled manual laborers.

2 Chronicles 2: 17
Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600.ESV

NOTE: Resident/illegal aliens were not “undocumented citizens” as they were included in the national census; sounds like prudent government policy to a wise King Solomon

REFERENCE 

Eastons Bible Dictionary:
Alien
A foreigner, or person born in another country, and therefore not entitled to the rights and privileges [as a native/indigenous citizen or resident] of the country where he resides.

Robert Randle
776 Commerce St Apt 701
Tacoma, WA 98402
April 5, 2018
[email protected]