Send Them Away

"'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God." Lev 19:33-34 (NIV)

I read this verse this morning in my daily reading. It jumped out at me because the version I was reading used the word "exploit" instead of mistreat. Either way you read it, God 's concern seems to trump the concern of those who see illegal immigrants just as criminals who broke the law.

I am going to weigh-in my opinion on this subject using these verses.

All too often I have heard the mantra "get rid of the aliens!" People have tried arresting them, beating them, and going after employers who employee them. Yet they keep coming. They keep finding jobs. They keep multiplying.

We scream for border security and fences. I have done so. This morning, however, these verses from God's Word made me step back and think about how we treat those coming here just to take care of their families back in their native countries.

I understand that not all who come are law abiding people. But I have seen the eyes and heard the tears of those who come because their children have little or nothing to eat, and they did not have any other hope.

My fear is that in protecting the sovereignty of our nation that we may be pointing the finger the wrong way. I am not saying we are wrong for asking people to follow our laws and enter our country in a legal manner.

• Maybe we haven't explained the peril of coming to our nation in an illegal manner
  
• Maybe we haven't made it very clear how many employers exploit the labor of illegal immigrants for their own personal gain
  
• Maybe we have not made it clear how sweat shops are more than happy to enslave foreign nationals just to gain an edge on the competition (competition is not always a great thing)
  
• Maybe we haven't warned them well enough about the diseases they may carry from their own nation that we here are not able to fight off thus endangering our own

What would happen if we changed our laws in how people enter into our country for work visas? How do we better go about quarantining immigrants in order to make sure they are healthy? How do we take profiteering out of hands of immigrant smugglers?

Maybe I am not that far off from the way people think. But I do know that demonizing people for attempting to take care of their families regardless of the consequences may not be the way God would have us act towards them.

I guess what I am trying to say is that they are people. They are looking for hope. They are looking to us. Even though our country's moral character has declined, people still see hope in our way of life.

Would it hurt to show more compassion and to love them?

Crowds followed Jesus one day. He saw how desperate they were and had compassion on them. He knew He could not send them away without feeding them. So He had them sit down and fed them until they were full and all that remained were leftovers. Yes, this is a miraculous story in that He fed the with so little. However, I like looking at it this way - He showed us how to give without running out.

Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor!...He gives them prosperity in the land (Psalm 41)

I can't cure all our social ills, but I know we need to check our motives. How can we better serve our neighbors to the south? God says we can't out give Him. Are we ready to test Him?