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Lutheran Leaders Ask, “What Would Jesus Say About Immigration Reform?”
BALTIMORE, April 20, 2007 —In the weeks following the Holy Days of Easter and Passover, President George W. Bush and members of Congress have turned their attention to comprehensive immigration reform. As a nation, we struggle with how to treat the more than 10 million undocumented immigrants living among us and the thousands more who arrive each year to meet our economy’s tremendous need for skilled and unskilled labor.
Lutheran leaders ask, “What does the Bible say about how we should treat immigrants?” Throughout the Gospels, Jesus preached that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35)
Bishop Stephen P. Bouman from the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) offers, “What do these words mean for us today? God calls us to welcome, protect, and love everyone in our midst. Our love for the stranger must transcend national boundaries, race, language, culture, and religion.”
“The Bible reminds us that we were all once strangers in a strange land,” states Bishop Gerald L. Mansholt from ELCA’s Central States Synod. “‘The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.’ (Leviticus 19:33-34) Nearly all Americans trace their origins to another part of the world. With the exception of Native Americans and African slaves, nearly all of us or our ancestors came to this country to seek a better life—to escape religious persecution, to flee famine, to find work, to join relatives, to pursue the American dream. These are the same reasons today’s immigrants come. The American migration story is one of our longest and richest traditions.”
Remembering our own history is the first step toward embracing today’s newcomers. Today’s immigrants hail from all parts of the world They are caring for our children, tending to our ailing parents, harvesting our crops, operating successful businesses, and attending our churches. They are hard-working, family-loving, and God-fearing. They love this country and long to make positive contributions here.
Why then is our government engaged in practices that harm and punish immigrants? Instead of welcoming them, our government is locking them up like criminals. Our government has spent billions of dollars to erect the largest detention system for immigrants in our nation’s history. On any given day more than 28,000 immigrants are detained in jail-like facilities—including young children, pregnant women, and families—for no other violation than being present in the U.S. without legal papers. And the numbers are rising.
Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, President of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) shares, “During the past year, at unprecedented levels, our government has conducted massive workplace raids nationwide and deported untold numbers of immigrants who own homes, work full-time jobs, pay taxes, and have U.S. citizen children. Left in the wake of these massive raids are breastfeeding infants needing urgent hospitalization and children with nowhere to go but the foster care system.”
Lutheran congregation members witnessed immigration agents raid a church member’s home and drag an undocumented woman into the street in her pajamas before jailing her. True, she was undocumented and had broken the law. But she did not deserve to be treated that way.
Detaining families and conducting mass raids cannot be the path for a nation that prides itself on democratic and family values and respect for individual rights. We call upon our government immediately to halt these abhorrent and ungodly practices. In good conscience, we cannot treat people we know and love as an underclass, huddled in the shadows, barely surviving in fear.
Jesus said that one of the ways in which nations will be judged is on whether they welcome the stranger. (Matthew 25) Now that Congress has returned from April recess, immigration reform should be their top priority. In March, a bipartisan bill called the STRIVE Act was introduced in the House of Representatives. Though not perfect, STRIVE contains all the essential components necessary for workable, humane immigration reform. A week after STRIVE’s introduction, President Bush released a counter proposal that is a big step in the wrong direction.
Deffenbaugh implores, “We call upon our nation’s leaders to enact comprehensive immigration legislation this year that is workable, humane, and welcoming of the immigrant. Real reform must protect and reunite families. Real reform must protect the rights of immigrants in their places of employment, at home, and school. Real reform must enable the millions of undocumented people among us to live full and open lives. Real reform must provide us with security without compromising the values that make our country great.”
Since 1939, has worked with service, advocacy and educational partners nationwide to bring new hope and new life to America’s newcomers. LIRS resettles refugees, protects unaccompanied refugee and migrant children, including victims of trafficking, advocates for fair and just treatment of asylum seekers, seeks alternatives to detention for those who are incarcerated during their immigration proceedings and stands for unity for families fractured by unfair laws.
LIRS is a cooperative agency of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. With initiative and stewardship, LIRS seeks creative solutions for uprooted people regardless of race, ethnicity or religious beliefs.
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