Why is there so much resentment against the current 13 million plus immigrants who have, in recent years, entered the United States illegally (saying they are simply undocumented misses or covers up that fact)? Why is there so much anger among many Americans about any proposal to grant them amnesty, allowing them to remain here, with minimal or no punishment, putting them on a track toward citizenship? Why such resentment and anger?
There are a number of reasons. One is their large number and omnipresence in many parts of the country. This is made very noticeable by their predominately “brown” skin color, Spanish language and Hispanic culture. However, there are many people of “color”, speaking a variety of languages, in the United States. Perhaps the resentment and anger is primarily a response of “white“, English-speaking Americans who feel increasingly threatened (or very uncomfortable) by the demographic changes of this country’s population in general. (We realize we are rapidly becoming a minority in the land where we were born and we do not like that.) The seemingly recent and “sudden” influx of Hispanic immigrants, legal or not, has exacerbated these feelings. We feel we are losing the country we have known and loved and, in this case, to millions of people culturally different from us, who have no legal right to be here. I am not here defending this feeling, only expressing its existence and saying something often not openly expressed in the debate.
That we are also being asked to support these immigrants with education, health and social services paid for by our tax dollars only makes the resentment and anger stronger. It does not help when we know that millions of dollars earned by the immigrants are sent out of this Country, back to the ones they came from. (Many of us do not buy the argument that these immigrants are economically necessary because they do jobs that citizens supposedly refuse to do. In fact, we resent companies that employ them rather than us, paying lower wages than we believe are fair.)
These are familiar arguments. I want to propose that this group of Latino (Mexican and Central American) immigrants, indeed all immigrants, are not the problem many citizens say they are. They are not the threat to America or our way of life as many conservatives believe they are. Denying illegal immigrants citizenship or deporting them, as unrealistic (impossible) as that would be, will not put an end to the real threats to America or bring down the Nation we love. (Although I am definitely in favor of whatever measures are necessary to stop the flow of more illegal immigrants into this Land).
Chapters 9 and 10 of the Book of Ezra are helpful in this debate. The country (Israel) was full of pagan immorality and especially idolatry. God was angry and about to bring destructive judgment upon that Land. The source of this problem was decided to be intermarriage. God had warned the Israelites not to marry pagans (actually citizens of other countries), less the latter draw the Israelites into idolatry and pagan immorality (ruin their country). They did not heed the warning and this is exactly what happened. Under conviction for their sin and fearing for the future well-being of their country, the Israelites agreed to the draconian measure of breaking up their families, divorcing their pagan wives, sending them and their children back to their place of origin. See any similarity with our current immigration issue?
There was another solution possible. Paul tells Christians who are married to non-Christians, not to divorce them over this. Not only does God abhor divorce, there is the actual possibility that the non-believing spouse might be converted to the Faith. The latter is what Paul wants Christians in this situation to go for (I Corinthians 7:12-15). What was ruining Israel, the Nation, was idolatry and pagan immorality. The Israelite men could have repented of those sins and changed the way they lived and worshipped, while keeping their wives and children, with the hope that the latter would become believers in God and obedient themselves to His Law.
Certainly, Ezra 9 and 10 is not a Biblical mandate or justification for mass (or individual) divorce. It is a description of what the Israelites did under Ezra’s leadership, not a prescription for Christians today, let alone for Americans dealing with immigrants. But what Paul said and what the Israelites could have done is a prescription for American Christians today.
There are people who are ruining our Country, but that has nothing to do with their “color” or where they were born or originally came from. It has nothing to do with whether they are legal or illegal or with what their birth language might be. Who are they? Anyone who does not share our foundational beliefs as a constitutional democracy (a republic of states that are united in the central core beliefs and values that all Americans shared well into the 19th Century). Anyone who denigrates the basic Christian Faith of our Puritan Forefathers and the Colonial Founders of our Country. Anyone who opposes the absolute moral values grounded in what has been known as Judeo-Christian Religion (the Bible). Anyone who advocates multiculturalism and moral pluralism. Anyone who undermines the original intent of the Federal Constitution and its first 10 Amendments (The Bill of Rights) Anyone who endangers political and economic Freedom or works against the infinite value and dignity of each human being (which would include the unborn).
Never mind the 13 million immigrants in the current debate. If we want to preserve or save America we must "deport" people I have just described- or convert them. In my mind, anyone who comes to America is welcome- if they are willing to learn and support all of this History and Heritage and adopt and uphold these beliefs and values. This should be required of all. Many people who have lived here for generations and are citizens do not. Everyone, whatever their first or “heart’ language may be at home and in private, should also be required to learn and use publicly the language that our Forefathers and Founders spoke and in which all our historic documents are written. Actually, if the 13 plus million we are debating about assimilated and came to espouse and live by all these values of the Original American Way, they could be a great blessing to this Nation- under God!
