Immigration and Compassion

There are many thoughts, ideas, and perspectives regarding the topic of immigration. I think the few ideas I have shared here, some I consider original at least in presentation, would benefit the conversation.

Should people in the country illegally be given anything? No, and both they and their family should be removed from the country as quickly as possible. If they have a medical need, give them the required medical care, then discharge them from the hospital and the country for the sake of your family and mine.

Is it compassionate to taxpayers to take their money by law and give it to people who are breaking the law?

Is it compassionate to legal immigrants who followed the law to take their tax money and reward those who didn’t follow the law?

Is it compassionate to those waiting in the immigration line and following the law to reward those who choose to break the law rather than wait in line?

Is it compassionate to reward cartel members for breaking the law and allow them to profit from human trafficking?

Is it compassionate to law-abiding Americans to allow foreign individuals, gangs, and governments who want to undermine and destroy America to break the law and have their way with us by smuggling murderers, arms dealers, cybercriminals, sexual predators, and terrorists across our border?

Is it compassionate for us to work hard, pay taxes, follow the law, and sacrifice to build a productive and stable society, and give the benefits to those who don’t and are breaking the law?

Is it compassionate to constituents for political leaders to promise sanctuary to those who broke the law?

There are limits to compassion

Countries are like families. I will not help your family unless my kids are fed, clothed, and provided for first. Not because I hate you or don’t have compassion. I am full of compassion, but compassion has limits because my capacity for compassion is not limitless. I want to help you and your family, but if the choice is between my electric bill and your medical bill, you will not find my compassion manifested as a donation to your bill. However, if I have extra after my bill is paid, my compassion might come through as financial assistance.

Americans are a family, a rather dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless. We should not be giving away our compassion until our family’s needs are taken care of. Ironically, the best way my family can help you and your family is to provide for my own, raise them with a work ethic, many disciplines, and provisions. Once my family is stable, I will look for ways to encourage you and your family’s growth and development in truth, disciplines, production, and compassion to get you to the place where you have something to offer others. My refusal to help your family if my family is not provided for is not hate, anger, disregard, pride, selfishness, or fascism. It is love prioritized. My family comes first because I love them. You and your family do not come first, even though I love and want what is best for you all. While it might seem like a temporary solution to not help my family to help yours, it is a disastrously short-term strategy that will end up hurting both your family and my family. You will not have learned how to provide for yourself and your own, my kids will not be provided for and will not have the resources to grow to have something to give, and I will be left trying to play catch-up to help both families all to meet an arbitrary and artificial standard of compassion.

Many people quote the scripture “as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me” to those in favor of removing illegal immigrants from America. In other words, they are saying, “You claim to follow Christ, and yet you are not treating these immigrants right.” But another verse that seldom enters the discussion is, “if you do not provide for your relatives and those in your house, you are worse than an unbeliever.” This verse cannot be left out of the discussion. If we start with Christ, we have our needs met, our family has their needs met, our community has our needs met, and then the whole community can love bomb the stranger, foreigner, and “least of these” with the multifaceted arsenal of a loving community. And the beautiful thing is, no tax dollars will be needed. This is not a pipe dream or utopia; it is what God intends for everyone who follows him. It is the path I am attempting to walk with my family. I will ignore the need of everyone around me until my compassion meets my family’s needs. Then I will ignore every need outside of those in my immediate circle to give my overflowing compassion to my family and local fellowship of faith. Then I will discuss with those around me how we can harness our compassion to share with others the blessings God and his good ways have given us. If you try to place someone into my immediate circle and demand that I meet their needs and claim that my refusal to meet their needs is because I don’t take following Christ seriously, don’t have compassion, or don’t care about the least of these, you will be disappointed.

If rules and laws are not followed, our nation crumbles. I don’t want that to happen.

Politicians who allow illegal immigration are substituting the needs of my family and community for power and influence. This behavior should have consequences, not be encouraged.

I wont allow you to take what I have worked hard to provide for my family and community from me without asking and without an agreement, and our nation shouldn’t allow what we have worked hard to build and provide for ourselves to be taken from us without asking both by illegal immigrants (whose first step indicates they don’t want to play by the rules) and by those hungry for the votes of illegal immigrants.

I want to grow in my compassion, and I am actively working on it. But if there was someone taking things from my family without asking, the best way for me to help you would be to stop the individual from taking from me. The best way our community, states, and nation can be the most compassionate is to follow the model outlined in the New Testament. We haven’t taken care of our veterans, the homeless, and our lower and middle class, and our healthcare is expensive, insurance is expensive, so we are worse than infidels. If we start with family first, then faith community, then greater community, state, and nation, we will have much more means and compassion to offer than if we were to continue on the current path. I support the President removing illegal immigrants from our country, though he could definitely do it in a better way, because I think it enables me, my family, and your family to be more compassionate in the long term.

And if anyone who does not claim to orient their life around Christ attempts to quote a scripture verse that someone of faith is not living up to (eg, “if you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me), it might be helpful to ask them how they are living up to Christ’s standard.

Who is at the source of this “immigration crisis”? Malevolent political snakes in compassionate clothing. Don’t be deceived. And don’t allow yourself to be beaten by misinformed individuals who attempt to portray your rightly placed compassion for family, friends, and community as a lack of compassion for Christ (the least of these). Continue on Christ’s path of prioritized compassion, and one day the results of your abundant compassion will beat the ignorant guides for you.

Don’t love the foreigner until you have provided for your family, friends, and faith community, then look for ways to help the foreigner, provided they are here legally.