"Illegals" And The Immigration Debate That Breaks My Heart.

This started as a Facebook post and then I realized it was too long:

This morning I read a rather disturbing Business Insider Story on the abuse of detained immigrant children. It is sickening, disheartening, and sadly not isolated. Stories of cruelty to detained immigrants of all ages have come out from number of detention centers around the country today, and across the years. And this cruelty breaks my heart. It's not the political implications. The lawsuit in the linked story was filed in 2016 and these incidents took place during the Obama administration. While other stories in other states are happening now during the Trump administration and some I have heard date back to the second Bush administration. Nor is it the legal aspect of enforcing immigration law that bothers me. We can and should have secure borders and just immigration policies, which will include detaining/imprisoning those who break immigration law. My problem is the way our entire system of immigration has been used for decades to dehumanize an entire population of people. 

We have systematically taken a group of people and reduced them to an action or really, an adjective, "Illegals." We then use that term redefine their entire humanity to the point where we barely think of them as human, or at least humans we have to actually care about. We have done this for years and we have done that as an entire nation or at least allowed it to happen on our behalf. No political party can claim innocence and very few adults can claim true ignorance of all that has happened. 

And this is what breaks my heart. We have ignored or justified children being traumatized because they're are "illegals". We don't care that we warehouse people in desert camps or old stores without adequate because they are "illegals". We brush away families being broken up, with no plan for how they might be reunited because they are "illegals." We ignore or worse embrace these cruel punishments and abuses because they are "illegals." Even though we are a country that enshrined "No cruel or unusual punishment" in our constitution. In short we allow an entire subdivision of humanity (a good portion of which are fleeing violence and death to seek asylum) to be treated more unfairly and cruelly than we treat the average death row inmate because we call that population "illegals." We are a country where millions of us claim Jesus as Lord, including me. Jesus who said in Matthew 5:43-44 to not just love our neighbors but also our enemies. Immigrants, legal or otherwise, fit somewhere on that spectrum. Jesus also warned in Matthew 25 that whatever we did to "the least of these", which I think immigrants and asylum seekers especially children fall under, we do to him. Even given that fact, we still view "illegals" as so much trash. 

That so many of us who claim to be "Proud Americans" continue to allow these atrocities to happen, which fly in the face of our national values, is shameful. That we Christians allow these actions, which violate the central teachings of Jesus, the one we claim as Messiah, to go on with little to no protest is sinful. Again, I'm not against enforcing immigration laws. But we can do so humanely and reasonably in a way that reflects the best of beliefs and ideals instead of reflecting the very worst. We can treat those who have broken immigration laws at least as well as we treat accused criminals awaiting trial.

We can treat families of asylum seekers with kindness by keeping them together (which President Trump to his credit has ordered) and reuniting those already divided (which is still officially up in the air). We can go the extra mile to protect and care for migrant children whether their parents broke the law or not. Our focus should not be on simply warehousing them but reuniting them with family and ensuring they are not traumatized further. Because we do not punish kids for the sins of their elders. We can show immigrants of all stripes Christian love and kindness and work with a sense of justice that is both reasonable and biblical. We can also crack down on abuses against detained immigrants, which I hope will happen more often now that more of these stories. We can demand better of our elected officials than the mess we have today. 

We can do better as a country with immigration and we have to. If we don't I fear we will truly lose our soul both as a nation and a community of faith. And if we lose that, then what are we even protecting our borders for? 

P.S. I know there is way more to this topic. But this already a long blog post. I'm just sharing my own personal struggles. 

P.P.S. Even though I have said this is not political, and truly it's not, some will undoubtedly ask: "Why only bring this up now with Trump? What about Obama or etc etc etc." Short answer, this is about right and wrong, not what political party is acting. I believe at least the last 4 administrations are to blame for the current state of affairs with regards to immigration and those administrations split even between Democrat and Republican. I'm a registered Republican living in Texas who cares about our country my church. This is not about politics. 

Finally, feel free to comment, but hatefulness and vulgarity will get deleted. Also, if you're local I'm always happy to discuss all this over coffee or beer. Better conversations happy over drinks than over keyboards.