Another Christian approach to immigration reform
By Bryan Fischer
Our immigration policy is quite clear that border trespassers have broken the law and are to be returned to their country of origin. To reward lawbreakers by guaranteeing them a path to citizenship that is not available to lawkeepers makes a mockery of the concept of justice and equality before the law.
No matter how hard evangelicals try to pretend that this isn't amnesty, that's exactly what it is. When someone gets rewarded rather than punished for breaking the law, that's amnesty, no matter how it's finessed by nuanced language. And they can of course talk all they want about penalties and background checks, but illegals know they're catching a huge break here, a break denied to those waiting patiently overseas.
Those waiting in line overseas would be happy to pay the same amount of money and go through the same background checks if they could be guaranteed citizenship in the U.S. But that option is not available to them for one simple reason: they haven't broken our immigration laws. So we teach them that lawbreakers get rewards in America that law-abiding folks don't. What is remotely compassionate or just about that?
The scriptural standard, when it comes to the role of our legal system, is quite clear: judges are "to acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty" (Deut. 25:1). To acquit, nay reward, the guilty turns justice and the rule of law on its head.
In all the evangelical rhetoric about compassion as it relates to immigration, I read virtually no discussion whatever about the enormous cost illegal aliens impose on law-abiding Americans, who lose jobs to those who have no legal right to be in this country, who are forced to foot the bill for medical services and welfare benefits paid out to those who are not entitled to them, and whose cities are wracked by the gang violence associated with the drug trade.
Hospitals all along our southern border have closed, depriving American citizens of access to local health care, because they have been overwhelmed by the cost of providing care for people who have trespassed on another country's sovereign soil.
Where is either the Christian compassion or justice in that?
We already have the most generous legal immigration system in the world, legally admitting 1.1 million immigrants to our shores every year. Equality under the law requires that everybody who wants legal status in the U.S. must play by the same rules by which everyone else plays. To do otherwise, I submit, is the exact opposite of Christian compassion for everyone who gets leapfrogged in the process. What this teaches them is that they are chumps for playing by the rules, and that the rule of law is meaningless in what is supposed to be a Christian nation.
Another Christian approach to immigration reform
By Bryan Fischer
Our immigration policy is quite clear that border trespassers have broken the law and are to be returned to their country of origin. To reward lawbreakers by guaranteeing them a path to citizenship that is not available to lawkeepers makes a mockery of the concept of justice and equality before the law.
No matter how hard evangelicals try to pretend that this isn't amnesty, that's exactly what it is. When someone gets rewarded rather than punished for breaking the law, that's amnesty, no matter how it's finessed by nuanced language. And they can of course talk all they want about penalties and background checks, but illegals know they're catching a huge break here, a break denied to those waiting patiently overseas.
Those waiting in line overseas would be happy to pay the same amount of money and go through the same background checks if they could be guaranteed citizenship in the U.S. But that option is not available to them for one simple reason: they haven't broken our immigration laws. So we teach them that lawbreakers get rewards in America that law-abiding folks don't. What is remotely compassionate or just about that?
The scriptural standard, when it comes to the role of our legal system, is quite clear: judges are "to acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty" (Deut. 25:1). To acquit, nay reward, the guilty turns justice and the rule of law on its head.
In all the evangelical rhetoric about compassion as it relates to immigration, I read virtually no discussion whatever about the enormous cost illegal aliens impose on law-abiding Americans, who lose jobs to those who have no legal right to be in this country, who are forced to foot the bill for medical services and welfare benefits paid out to those who are not entitled to them, and whose cities are wracked by the gang violence associated with the drug trade.
Hospitals all along our southern border have closed, depriving American citizens of access to local health care, because they have been overwhelmed by the cost of providing care for people who have trespassed on another country's sovereign soil.
Where is either the Christian compassion or justice in that?
We already have the most generous legal immigration system in the world, legally admitting 1.1 million immigrants to our shores every year. Equality under the law requires that everybody who wants legal status in the U.S. must play by the same rules by which everyone else plays. To do otherwise, I submit, is the exact opposite of Christian compassion for everyone who gets leapfrogged in the process. What this teaches them is that they are chumps for playing by the rules, and that the rule of law is meaningless in what is supposed to be a Christian nation.
Another Christian approach to immigration reform
