That our country has an illegal immigration crisis is irrefutable. Anyone denying it is obviously out of touch with reality. To pretend it ain’t so, doesn’t make it go away, but only continues and compounds it. Our current disorder at the border is by executive order. President Biden’s new “Y’all come” immigration policy has rolled out the red carpet for illegal immigrants at our border. Consequently, they’re coming in ever-growing record numbers. Yet, this threat to our national security is glossed over as humane and caring, which, of course, stereotypes anyone in opposition to it as inhumane and uncaring. To understand how our country came to this crisis requires a look back over our shoulder with twenty-twenty hindsight.
For most of our history America understood the necessity of laws regulating immigration. The number of immigrants annually coming to our shores or crossing our borders had to be limited and controlled, lest our nation jeopardize its economy and compromise its security. Furthermore, to safeguard our country’s culture, which was deemed without apology to be superior to all others, Congress passed the "National Origins Act" of 1925. This legislation mandated that immigrant groups be allowed into the country according to the percentage of the general U.S. population they represented. In other words, if Norwegians only made up one percent of the U.S. population, then the percentage of annual immigrants made up by Norwegians could never exceed one percent.
Today, thanks to the myth of multiculturalism, any attempt to safeguard American culture by limiting the annual influx of other nationalities into our country is strictly condemned as racism. Moreover, what was once taken for granted in the immigration debate; namely, the expectation of all immigrants to assimilate themselves into our culture, is now resoundingly renounced as sheer bigotry. Thus, immigrants are no longer expected to assimilate themselves into our culture, but our country is expected to prove its tolerance by changing its culture to accommodate each immigrant. As a result of this politically correct nonsense, America has been transformed from a "melting pot"—a land in which different nationalities are dissolved into a united people forming a single nation—to a "salad bowl"—a land in which different nationalities are tossed together to vie for themselves against one another.
Although it is taboo to point out and extremely risky to one’s reputation to mention, sometimes it’s the immigrants, not the countries to which they immigrate, that are bigoted and intolerant. Many immigrants today despise and disdain the culture of their host country. As a result, they want nothing to do with their host country’s culture and have no intention of ever being assimilated into it. Instead, these intolerant immigrants insist upon forcing their culture, not to mention their language, religion, etc., down the throat of their new country.
To understand how we got to where we are today, we must go back to the mid-1960s. Although the number of immigrants fluctuated from time to time, America saw an average of about 250,000 immigrants a year up until 1965. In 1965, everything changed, thanks to Congress’ passing of the "Immigration Reform Act." This watershed piece of legislation resulted in a couple of earthshaking changes to American immigration.
The first thing that the "Immigration Reform Act" did was to quadruple the number of immigrants coming to our shores and crossing our borders. This, despite the assurance of Senator Ted Kennedy, one of the bill’s authors, that the level of immigration would remain substantially the same. The second thing that this critical piece of legislation accomplished was to forever change the face of American immigration. Since the passage of the "Immigration Reform Act" in 1965, eighty-five percent of all U.S. immigrants come from the Third World and more than fifty percent come from Spanish-speaking countries. Again, Senator Kennedy, who predicted that the legislation would not upset the ethnic mix of our country, was proven to be as bad a prophet as he was a politician.
While changes in our immigration laws have played a part in our country’s current immigration crisis, the real culprit has been our government’s failure to enforce our immigration laws. When they are sworn into office, our elected officials swear an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States." By refusing to uphold the laws of our land, our elected officials are reneging upon their oath of office. This is not only a treasonous act on their part, but also ruinous to the rule of law and the future of our nation. If government officials disregard their oath of office and refuse to enforce our laws, then what is to prevent the outbreak of lawlessness in our land? What stands between America and anarchy?
It should come as no surprise to any of us that the number of illegal immigrants coming into our country far exceeds the number of legal immigrants. With our immigration laws unenforced, our borders unprotected, illegal immigrants promised immunity from deportation, as well as from extradition, for those who are criminals or commit crimes in our country, is there any wonder that illegal immigration has become the preferential way by which foreigners enter our land.
Did you know that immigration now accounts for three-fourths of all U.S. population growth? When we take into account the fact that the vast majority of today’s immigrants are illegal, we are forced to face a most frightening reality; namely, the fastest growing segment of our population is made up of undocumented people who are in our country unlawfully and who have little if any regard for our laws. How, one cannot help but wonder, does this bode well for the future of our nation.
Many contemporary Christians believe it is unchristian to oppose illegal immigration, despite the nightmarish scenario it paints for the future of our nation. They believe the Bible would have us throw open our arms to every illegal immigrant crossing our border and to provide them with free room and board, as well as additional benefits assuring them of perpetual prosperity. However, a serious study of Scripture on this subject will lead one to a startling conclusion.
To begin with, it is true that the Bible has much to say about the humane treatment of strangers in our land. Yet, these Scriptural admonitions, like all others, can only be properly interpreted in the light of context and other Scripture. As it is often said, “The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible.” When particular verses are pulled out of context and severed from all other Scripture the inevitable result is heresy. Cults are good examples of the inescapable consequences of such poor exegesis. Though they claim the Bible as their spiritual authority, they are guilty of twisting the Scripture “unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16).
Many Christians make a blanket-application of every Scriptural admonition concerning the treatment of strangers to every foreigner in our land. By doing so, they paint themselves into many precarious corners. For instance, should Exodus 22:21—“But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you”—be applied to Islamic terrorists who have snuck into our country to carryout terrorist attacks? Obviously, such an application of this admonition is not only unscriptural, but absurd; something made abundantly clear elsewhere in Scripture. For example, Nahum 3:13 warns us that our nation will be devoured by fire if “the gates of [our] land shall be set wide open unto [our] enemies.”
The strangers Scripture admonishes us to treat as our fellow citizens are those willing to be assimilated into our culture, not those antagonistic to it and determined to supplant it with their own (Leviticus 17:8-9; 24:16; Deuteronomy 5:14; Ezekiel 44:9). Contrary to the opinion of today’s multiculturalists, America is not obligated to change its culture, become multilingual, and renounce its Christian heritage in order to accommodate each and every immigrant crossing our borders or coming to our shores. Instead, it is the obligation of all immigrants to assimilate themselves to our culture, learn our language and respect our Christian heritage. Any who refuse to do so should be denied entrance into our land, especially those who enter our land in disobedience to our laws.
No president of the United States ever articulated the Christian position on immigration better than Theodore Roosevelt. On January 3, 1919, Roosevelt said the following about immigration: “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."