Jose and his wife Alicia lived in a white clapboard house on a dusty caliche road about a quarter mile from my grandparents. Nobody knew how they'd gotten across the U.S.-Mexican border or how long they'd been here. Jose just turned up one morning looking for work and Papa, a cotton sharecropper, helped him get a green card and set him to work as a field hand. I was only five, but he let me tag along on the farm and caught cottontailed bunny rabbits and gave them to me as presents.
As we celebrate our values and the freedoms allowed us as U.S. citizens, it is incumbent upon us to be aware of the people around us who, like Jose, desperately want the same rights and to become "real" Americans. As a fourth-generation Texan and someone who spent her 20s in Los Angeles, I've long been familiar with the problem of illegal immigration. For those of us who have lived in the southwestern border states, it's an issue we deal with daily.
Over the last few years, the issue has gained more and more national exposure, with the conversation reaching a crescendo this week with President Obama's announcement to seek $2 billion to respond to the flood of immigrants, mostly women and children, at our borders. The surge began in 2011, but reached a crisis point earlier this year, with 70,500 children expected to be detained at the border, nearly double the amount from 2013.
Some believe the problem is so great no level of funding can stem the influx. A border patrol agent, who was responsible for looking for any type of contraband crossing into the U.S. illegally (including narcotics, weapons, terrorists, illegal aliens and cartel personnel involved in human trafficking and human smuggling), told me, "I was down there and saw first-hand what was going on. It's a lot worse than people know, and I honestly don't seen an end in sight. The money we are pouring into border security is, in my opinion, is a waste. I hate to say that but I feel we are just spinning our wheels down there."
Like most people across party lines, I believe the solution to the illegal immigration issue is a pathway to citizenship and stronger border security. I believe people like Jose and Alicia ought to have the opportunity to seek U.S. citizenship and forge a better future for themselves and their families. I'm horrified at the numbers of children from Central America arriving at our doorstep, and I dream about their mothers, who are sending them on an unaccompanied journey of a thousand miles through some of the most dangerous territory on earth. I look at my daughters and wonder how bad my circumstances would have to be in order for me to do the same.
If only it were people like Jose and innocent children coming to our country. But they're not. As the border agent I spoke with stated, "The media portrays people crossing the border as 'Mexican nationals wanting a better life for themselves and their family.' I agree, there is a lot of those people coming over, but mixed in with those people are drug cartels, terrorists from Islamic countries, weapon smugglers, human smugglers, and human traffickers. People that want to infiltrate and destroy this country know that if they want to get inside our borders, they just need to get to Mexico and then walk across. It's bad…"
The political divisions over how to apply stricter border enforcement (whether before, during, or after immigrants are allowed to apply for legal status) has led to an impasse. I don't know how the federal government can come together to solve this issue, but I do know the humanitarian crisis on our borders is a quintessential opportunity for Christians to demonstrate, for once, not what we're against but what we are for: God's love and provision extended to all people, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.
Throughout the Scriptures, Christians have a clear injunction on how we are to treat foreigners and strangers, and yet, among evangelicals, reports on illegal immigration don't go viral like posts on the culture wars. Perhaps, as the border agent believes, it's been going on so long we don't pay attention to it anymore. Perhaps we don't understand the full reality of what's really happening. Perhaps we view it as irrelevant to our mission. Or perhaps we're too busy critiquing one another to actually work together for the good of all.
Regardless of the reason, our failure to address the issue and provide aid to the immigrants in our country, especially the children, is a gross misuse of our religious liberty. Unlike the countries where these people are fleeing from, here we have the freedom to exercise our religious liberty in any way we choose—including providing aid (in the form of food and supplies) to immigrants.
Recently, on a cable news network, a commentator suggested that government officials call on local churches to take up the cause of these children. The host scoffed and replied "Churches? What do churches have to do with helping in this sort of situation?" Christians are viewed as irrelevant, and it's our fault. But thankfully, we can change that. With the humanitarian crisis on our border, with thousands of children needing medical aid, sustenance, and living supplies, Christians have the opportunity to demonstrate this same love and mercy—in the name of God, not government.