Immigration

Mainline church agencies and much of the religious left argue that the United States must have virtually unrestricted borders and offer automatic amnesty, with nearly all the benefits of U.S. citizenship, to all illegal immigrants. Commonly, these religious left advocates of a borderless United States base their arguments on biblical stories about the Hebrews hosting “sojourners” or the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt as refugees. But these stories hardly include a divine command that the United States must automatically accept all possible immigrants. There are numerous Christian teachings that should guide our response to immigration issues, most of which the religious left ignores. For example, Christianity traditionally acknowledges the authority of civil authorities and their rightful power to uphold civil law. And Christianity traditionally acknowledges some providential role in the existence of separate nations, which by definition must have borders. Just as importantly, Christianity, neither in its Scriptures, nor in its traditional moral teachings, can claim to have exact political solutions to immigration issues. There is room for policy disagreement among Christians. IRD reports about what church groups are saying about immigration and offers our own critique of their stances.