A Biblical Perspective on Illegal Immigration

Commentary by Mark Earley

President, Prison Fellowship

Throughout America recently, more than a million illegal immigrants poured into the streets. They took the day off from work, forcing many businesses to close for the day. They got everyone’s attention. However, it appears they only inflamed an already overheated debate. And the early polls are not showing any change in public opinion.

We need to pause and take a good look at the roles of the Church and the government here. They are different and, in some ways, conflicting. But this is not the first time such a conflict has arisen, and it is possible to formulate a thoughtful Christian perspective that takes both roles into account. Many Christians are giving it serious thought and coming up with good analyses.
First of all, as Christians, we are to care about the poor, widows, orphans, strangers, and that means aliens in our land. That’s explicitly commanded in God’s Word. Leviticus 19:33-34 is a good example. It says, “When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born.”

That settles the question of how we personally, as Christians, and how the Church at-large treats illegal aliens in our midst. But what about the other question of their legal status in the country? Those are two different things.

The Bible has something here to say as well. It states that government’s job is to preserve order and do justice. St. Augustine famously said that peace flows from order. As a former attorney general, I can tell you that enforcing the rule of law is very important to order and peace.

Congress needs to provide the resources for proper immigration control and establish a program that enables us to process those who have earned the legal right to stay as citizens. In the meantime, we must abide by the law. If thirty years of prison ministry have taught us anything, it’s that we can’t cave in to those who take the law into their own hands. Such disrespect for the law sets a terrible example to everyone. We have to look at what the law says and enforce it.

The hard truth is, if people come here illegally, they cannot be granted amnesty. That simply encourages millions more to cross our borders. Of course, securing the borders is vital to national security. It’s also important that immigrants come here, but through an orderly, established legal process and employers cannot be allowed to continue to ignore the law against hiring illegal aliens. If we do not enforce the law, we are teaching millions a terrible lesson. We are telling them the law does not matter.

Failure to enforce the law has created this problem, and the ironic aspect is that the very blessing illegal aliens come here to secure for themselves is precisely a result of an economy and society made strong by the rule of law.

It’s true that an unjust law is no law at all, as Martin Luther King famously said. But this is not a case of an unjust law. To secure our borders and to provide for an orderly process of immigrants is a just law, and the Church needs to respect that law even while it administers aid, compassion, and love to those in our midst.

Mark Earley, is a former State Senator and Attorney General of Virginia and presently serves as the President of Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM) which was founded by Chuck Colson in 1976. This commentary is from BreakPoint the worldview ministry of PFM. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Chuck Colson’s daily BreakPoint commentaries air each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. For more information regarding BreakPoint visit their website at www.breakpoint.org.