“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech is full of meaning and relevance today. At a time when many politicians wanted to compromise on slavery, Lincoln said compromise wasn’t possible.
When Lincoln delivered his speech, we were treating people as objects, taking away their dignity as human beings. When it comes to issues of immigration, our nation again is a house divided.
“Zero tolerance.”
Those were the words I heard in 2017 when our president came into office.
As a country that welcomes more immigrants than any other, the United States has been molded and reshaped demographically, economically, culturally, socially and politically by immigration over centuries, yet we struggle to find a balance in our immigration policies that respects the dignity and sanctity of individual humans.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 44.9 million immigrants lived in the United States in 2019. For context, the entire U.S. population is approximately 334 million.
The United States has between 10.5 million and 12 million undocumented people living within its borders. Of those who seek political asylum, only 30 percent who apply receive this status. All others are given deportation orders, though they don’t necessarily go back to their native countries.
The United States has a border security problem and a human rights problem. Neither are being addressed sufficiently.
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Immigration in Scripture
All my life, I have been involved with borders and immigration. I feel it is part of God’s calling on my life.
I am an immigrant from El Salvador and have lived in Texas almost 19 years. I have served the Hispanic community at Life Church of San Antonio. I served as a missionary with To the Least of These, a mission organization between McAllen and Tamaulipas, where I was able to serve with the migrant community in Reynosa and in the refugee camps.
Despite this experience, I never had been exposed to the issue of immigration in the way the T.B. Maston Foundation presented it to us during the foundation’s 2023 annual retreat.
When we talk about immigration in our Christian environments, we often use biblical passages to support our positions without really knowing what God has said to us in Scripture. To talk about immigration is to talk about people created in the image of God, people with names who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Daniel Carroll, professor of biblical studies and pedagogy at Wheaton College, started with Abraham, who God called to leave his land and his relatives. Through Abraham, we receive the promise of our Savior.
He recounted biblical stories of several people who migrated—such as Naomi and her family, who migrated due to famine; Joseph, who was trafficked; Jesus, who migrated due to persecution; and others.
I could not hold back tears as Dr. Carroll took us through a biblical migration tour. For the first time, I felt like I belonged somewhere. We can see God always has used migration to fulfill his plan and his purpose in the lives of people and nations.
Seeing immigrants’ struggle
During the retreat, the T.B. Maston Foundation gave us a tour from a biblical and legal perspective and gave us a chance to understand why people choose to enter the country illegally.
Part of the reason is because our immigration system is broken, and we urgently need fair immigration reform. Thousands of people enter the country seeking political asylum, while others wait in refugee camps between the U.S. and Mexican borders, becoming an easy target for Mexican cartels.
On my third day at the retreat, we met with Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz, who serves full time in ministry at the U.S.-Mexico border. He shared his experience of being kidnapped and thanking God he was released.
We were able to talk with some immigrants permitted to enter the United States and follow their cases within the country. We were able to listen to their stories and hear about their journey to get to the United States.
A call to act
No doubt, being part of the T.B. Maston Foundation retreat has opened my eyes and emphasized action. It is not enough to write about the subject or to acquire knowledge. We must serve and work as individuals, as a church and as a society. I like the quote, “If we are not part of the solution, then we are part of the problem.”
Foreigners are in the heart of the Lord, and we can see it in the same verses of the Bible where God tells us to care for the widow and the orphan.
“For the Lord, your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who shows no partiality and takes no bribes. He pleads the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the stranger who sojourns among you, giving him food and clothing. And love the strangers, for you yourselves were strangers in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19).
God tells us to care for the strangers also. We as Christians sometimes do not want to see this part or ignore it completely.
The T.B Maston Foundation retreat helped me realize we must do something to serve and defend the rights of those created in the image of God. We need to relate to immigrants’ stories and hear why they—and I—decided to leave our countries. We also need a humane solution that recognizes the God-given dignity of immigrants.
We all have a calling to act. Each of us has a calling to love our neighbor as ourselves and to serve the least of these. What can we do as a church, as individuals?
Yamileth Guzman is pursuing a double major in business leadership and biblical theology at Baptist University of the Américas. The views expressed are those of the author.
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