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It is written:
Leviticus 19:34-The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
One of the issues that has become more prominent in the last few years in America has dealt with the subject of “illegal immigration.” We have many immigrants from other countries living in our land who are here without legal citizenship. What does the Bible teach us as Christians about these matters?
Let’s study.
The first thing to consider regarding the subject illegal immigration is a difficult truth for many to hear because the truth goes against political parties and dogma which they have been exposed to for several years. Simply stated, for years we have been told by prominent politicians that most of the illegal immigrants in the United States are bloodthirsty criminals, rapists, and drug dealers. President Trump has often claimed that Mexico has released most immigrants from their jails and mental institutions in order to weaken and destabilize America.
It is certainly true that some immigrants have arrived in our country with a criminal background, and that some have committed criminal activities while living here in America. No one, to my knowledge, denies that this is the case. However, the facts show that many of these accusations against immigrants (and certainly the numbers of immigrants accused of being dangerous criminals) have been greatly exaggerated, and in some cases, absolute falsehoods.
“The Facts: There exists a widespread assumption that the great majority of people who enter the United States illegally come from Mexico. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, for example, whose focus on illegal immigration thrust him into the spotlight at the beginning of his campaign, has repeatedly pointed to Mexico when discussing problems associated with the issue. Trump has suggested on numerous occasions that unauthorized Mexican migrants are the biggest threat to border security and that their illegal entry necessitates the construction of a full border wall, which, he says, he will force Mexico to fund. Trump sent out a statement in July 2015 condemning illegal immigration in which he stated, “The worst elements in Mexico are being pushed into the United States by the Mexican Government” (Walker, 2015). Trump has further implied that the Mexican government purposely sends criminal nationals northward into the United States. During a Republican presidential debate hosted by Fox News, he said, “Because our leaders are stupid, our politicians are stupid, and the Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning, and they send the bad ones over because they don’t want to pay for them, they don’t want to take care of them. Why should they when the stupid leaders of the United States will do it for them? And that’s what’s happening whether you like it or not” (TIME, 2015). Trump’s comments earned a “pants on fire” rating from politifact.com. (Jacobson, 2015). Researchers from this Pulitzer Prize–winning fact-check Web site consulted a number of immigration experts regarding Trump’s allegation, who all agreed there was no truth to the claim. Trump, when asked, also could not provide any evidence, relying instead on conversations with “border patrol people” (ibid.). Instead of being pushed northward by the government, researchers from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP), a study based on over three decades of fieldwork, found that Mexican migration was driven primarily by both labor demands and well-developed migrant networks in the United States (Massey & Gentsch, 2014). MMP director Douglas Massey said that social and economic circumstances in both countries drive migration and that “Mexico has never had a policy of pushing migrants toward the United States, much less ‘forcing many bad people into our country’” (Jacobson, 2015). Center for Immigration Studies director Mark Krikorian who advocates for lower levels of immigration, agreed, saying “No, the Mexican government doesn’t force anyone to move here illegally, though it certainly doesn’t object” (Jacobson, 2015). Additional scholars have reiterated that Mexico does not force anyone to come to the United States and add that family reunification has also been an increasingly important factor in Mexican migration to the United States as well as increasing returns to Mexico from the United States (Gonzalez-Barrera, 2015; Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, 2016; Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, 2014). In fact, a Mexican government survey revealed 6 in 10 migrants who left the United States for Mexico between 2009 and 2014 listed family reunification as the primary reason for their return. In comparison, only 14 percent said the reason for their return was deportation (Gonzalez-Barrera, 2015).” (Cari Lee Skogberg Eastman, Immigration: Examining the Facts (Contemporary Debates), 85-86 (Kindle Edition): ABC-CLIO)
The statistics actually show that “illegal immigrants” in America break civil law less often then natural born citizens! So, while acknowledging that there are some foreigners who break the law, we also need to work to undo the stereotypes we have been fed by politicians who have personal agendas for advocating these things.
Second, what about foreigners who are here in our country and who break the laws? From the Old Testament, we find practical wisdom in principle for dealing with this question. We need to remember that in the Old Testament, foreigners were obligated to obey the laws of the land, just like the citizens of Israel. If foreigners broke those laws, they were subject to punishment just as the Jewish people were.
Leviticus 24:22-You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the LORD your God.’ “
Numbers 15:15-16-One ordinance shall be for you of the assembly and for the stranger who dwells with you, an ordinance forever throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD. 16 One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.’ “
So, the laws of the land apply to both citizens and foreigners. If any person breaks that law, they were under the just condemnation of that law and subject to punishment. Being a foreigner did not give a person the right to break the laws of the land wherein they resided.
Third, it needs to be understood further that many immigrants have fled to the United States for various and heartbreaking reasons. Some of these reasons include famine, plague, persecution, and threat of life from dangerous regimes, cartels, and sex trafficking rings.
Sadly, many of the illegal immigrants who have been apprehended here in the United States have been treated very badly by the government. Writing in 2016, we are told:
“The border region is safe for White citizens, but the reality for immigrants and all Hispanics is quite different. While the right to mobility is a universal human right, national governments that categorically identify people as “illegal” deny them what Hannah Arendt calls “the right to have rights.” 115 Any refusal to process asylum claims and any prolonged detainment of asylum seekers violate the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 and its Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. The latter document specifies that “refugees should not be penalized for their illegal entry or stay. . . . The seeking of asylum can require refugees to breach immigration rules.” 116 However, the horrid treatment migrants have received in the United States is a denial of their human rights. Detention centers have been used by both conservative and liberal administrations to hold immigrants since 1996.117 The detention centers controlled by CBP are notorious for their inhumane conditions and horrific behavior toward migrants and asylum seekers. Migrants are subjected to intensely derogatory insults and denied medical care, even if they are children, pregnant women, or people with chronic conditions. Detainees, including children, are sometimes molested by CBP authorities and illegally placed in cells where agents know they may be brutalized by other detainees. 118 Migrants are also refused hospitable living conditions and often get sick because of the cold temperatures and nutrient-poor meals. According to a DHS report released in June 2019, migrants were forced into standing-room-only cells with no showers or laundry facilities. 119 These facilities were designed to hold people for up to three days, but migrants were being kept for much longer periods—even for months. The DHS report also disclosed that ICE officers were given the option to use force against detainees who refused to return to said cells. After the release of the DHS report, the then House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “a shocking window into the dangerous and dehumanizing conditions that the Trump administration is inflicting on children and families at the border.” 120 In 2020, a federal district court in Arizona ruled that the conditions at the Tucson detention center were unconstitutional and punishable by law. 121 At least seven children have died in CBP custody in the past decade. Doctors note that some children have life-saving medications withheld from them, while other children, including infants, are released after developing serious health problems. 122 Some medical professionals disclosed in the DHS report that they were surprised more migrant children have not died, given the terrible conditions in detention centers. 123 Most migrants venture to the United States in search of safety and a better life. Nevertheless, they are confronted with violence and framed as enemies that must be kept out.” (Ernesto Castañeda, Carina Cione, Immigration Realities: Challenging Common Misperceptions, 56-58 (Kindle Edition): New York, NY: Columbia University Press)
Fourth, we need to realize from God’s Word that He made allowances for people who had fled from a place of residence due to dangerous situations. In speaking about the subject of slaves, Moses specifically said that runaway slaves who fled from abusive places were not to be returned to them.
Deuteronomy 23:15-16-You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you. 16 He may dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he chooses within one of your gates, where it seems best to him; you shall not oppress him.
Here, we see some wisdom from God’s Word for a similar situation to dealing with illegal immigrants who have fled due to dangerous situations.
One thing that stands out is that the passage is definitely mainly addressing foreign (in this context, non-Jewish) individuals. As Copan points out:
“One more matter: although some claim that the runaway slave in Deuteronomy 23 isn’t a foreigner but an Israelite, we have plenty of reason to reject that idea. For one thing, no mention of the word brother or neighbor is used. In addition, according to Leviticus 25, Israelites weren’t allowed to enslave fellow Israelites. Also, the foreign fugitive slave could freely choose a place to live in Israel (“ in your midst,” “in one of your towns” [Deut. 23: 16]), unlike the rest of the Israelites, who had to stay put on the land allotted to clans (cf. Numbers, Joshua). Thus, those who benefited weren’t society’s elite but vulnerable, marginalized foreign persons in the midst of a completely different society. Furthermore, Israelites entered servitude voluntarily whereas runaway slaves would likely have become slaves against their will. So if alien slaves received protection from harsh masters, how much more would this be so for Israelites.” (Paul Copan, Is God A Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God, 132 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books)
When we consider the context of this passage in light of the other nations around Israel, we see here an amazing contrast!
“23: 15–16 / This is an astonishing law. It is diametrically opposite to the whole thrust of slave legislation in other ancient Near Eastern law codes, and indeed in the legislation governing slavery in more modern times. The normal, common rule in such legislation is that (a) any slave who runs away is subject to extreme penalties (sometimes death), and (b) anyone who harbors a runaway slave is also subject to heavy penalty (see, for example, the death penalty in the Code of Hammurabi, 15–20, Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, pp. 166f.). The simple do not hand him over in the middle of verse 15 makes this OT law the direct negation of standard slave law, which would have insisted on returning the slave to his master. If this law applies to slaves in general and not just to foreign slaves, as suggested by some (though without any textual support), then it implies two things. First, the law seems to assume that the experience of slavery in Israel would not be so intolerably harsh that there would be a glut of runaways. Indeed, the slave release law allows for the possibility that a slave might be so content in his relationship with his master that he (or she) would prefer permanent slavery to freedom (15: 16f.). When reading the OT, we need to put out of our minds pictures of slavery derived from Roman galley slaves or more recent black slavery because these are quite inappropriate analogies for what a slave was in Israel. The word ʿebed meant a servant-worker, who could hold a wide range of social positions. The law allows for the fact that some slaves might run away from unfair or brutal masters, but does not envisage an institution of such widespread savagery that most slaves would want to if they could. Secondly, the radical nature of the law must be given full weight. To legislate so contrary to the universally accepted norms for the treatment of slaves indicates an intentional critique of the very nature of the institution itself. That is, the legal rights and expectations intrinsic to slavery as a social institution are subordinated to the rights of the slave as a human being with needs. Old Testament law characteristically values needs above claims. In this case, the needs of the weaker party (the slave seeking refuge) are given explicit legal preference over the claims of the stronger (the master seeking his return). Thus, the legal right to hold property in the form of persons (slaves) is not abolished, but it is certainly relativized and subordinated to higher moral obligation. This Deuteronomic law on slavery is pointing in a direction that ultimately undermines slavery itself. In Job 31: 13–15 the same awareness of the rights of the slave as a human being is founded explicitly on the created equality of slave and master. There is no higher statement of that equality after Job 31: 15 until Paul declares the redeemed equality of slave and free in Christ (Gal. 3: 28). One final remarkable feature of the law, somewhat obscured by the NIV rendering, Let him live among you wherever he likes, is that the slave is given a freedom to choose his own place of residence in words that echo precisely God’s own choice of a place: “With you let him live, in the midst of you, in the place which he will choose in one of your towns as is good for him” (v. 16). This is a significant example of the way Deuteronomy reinforces its social legislation on behalf of the poor and the weak, by using phrases that echo its primary theological foundations (cf. the use of the exodus in ch. 15). When the phraseology of the “chosen place,” which is used so extensively in Deuteronomy to denote the sanctuary where Yahweh would place his name, is used in connection with the free choice of a slave, it gives that law a deep theological resonance (cf. Hamilton, Social Justice, pp. 117–21).” (Christopher J.H. Wright, Deuteronomy, 249-250 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books)
Prager tells us about how this law influenced the world, and even had repercussions for modern Israel:
“This was an utterly unique law. Scottish theologian John Edgar McFadyen (1870–1933) comments, “What an honorable contrast to the law of Hammurabi, which condemned to death anyone who sheltered a runaway slave!” 17 Hammurabi’s Code provided, “If anyone receives into this home a runaway male or female slave… and does not bring the slave out… the master of the house shall be put to death.” 18 Equally remarkable as the law itself is the fact that it pertained to non-Jewish slaves! An Israelite is permitted to return neither an Israelite slave nor a non-Israelite slave to his master. But that was not all: The escaped slave was to be allowed to live anywhere in Israel he chose. And for good measure, the Torah adds, “you must not ill-treat him,” which would have been very easy to do, given that he had no nation or family to protect him. This law was not only unique in its time, but also remained so through much of the modern era. In 1857, the United States Supreme Court, in its infamous Dred Scott decision, ruled that slave owners could bring a slave into a free state and then force him to return to a slave state. 19 This biblical law deeply impacted the Jewish psyche. In June 1977, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s first official act as head of state was to admit into Israel sixty-six men, women, and children who had fled the communist regime in Vietnam. The refugees were on a boat that had sprung a leak and run out of food. Passing ships from East Germany, Norway, Japan, and Panama had ignored their SOS signals. The captain and crew of a passing Israeli ship brought them onboard, and the newly elected Begin authorized their admission as permanent residents of Israel. Begin remained proud of this throughout his life, saying that the admission of these people—in effect, runaway slaves—was “my first act as prime minister.” 20 This is one of four laws in the Bible protecting the rights of slaves that were not only unique at the time of the Bible, but also remained unique over thousands of years. Another was the law that ordained a death sentence for a person who kidnapped another and sold that person into slavery (Exodus 21: 16). A third is the law that one who causes a slave to lose a limb or even a tooth is obligated to free him (Exodus 21: 26–27). A fourth is the law ordaining the death sentence for one who murders his slave (Exodus 21: 20). If these Torah laws had been followed in America, slavery would have not been possible.” (Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, 369-370 (Kindle Edition): Washington, D.C.: Regnery Faith)
The law of this passage focuses on human dignity and situation as found within the context of each person. The foreigner was to be treated with kindness and fairness. As such, there were exceptions recognized for those who came from dangerous or abusive homes and lands.
My friends, this speaks volumes to us.
When we consider “illegal immigrants,” we must divorce from our minds the narrative that we have been told that “they” are the enemy. Many are just doing the best that they can, in a country where they perhaps sought refuge due to circumstances too terrible for us to fathom. Now, we are living in a time when “they” are being rounded up indiscriminately and not only being deported, but are being detained in terrorists holding camps like Guantanamo Bay!
Just as shocking, the New York Times recently detailed more horrific conditions and treatment of immigrants.
“Nearly 100 migrants, recently deported by the United States to Panama where they had been locked in a hotel, were loaded onto buses Tuesday night and moved to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle, several of the migrants said. It is unclear how long the group, which was deported under the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to expel unauthorized migrants, will be detained at the jungle camp. Conditions at the site are primitive, the detainees said. Diseases, including dengue are endemic to the region, and the government has denied access to journalists and aid organizations. “It looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages,” said one deportee, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old migrant from Iran, after arriving at the camp following a four-hour drive from Panama City. “They gave us a stale piece of bread. We are sitting on the floor….Some, including a group of Iranian Christians and a man from China, told The New York Times that they risk reprisals if returned to their native countries, and have refused to sign documents that would pave the way for their repatriation. Under Iranian law, converting from Islam is considered apostasy and is a crime punishable by death…The Panamanian government has previously said the migrants had no criminal records.” (By Julie TurkewitzFarnaz FassihiHamed Aleaziz and Annie Correal, “Migrants, Deported to Panama Under Trump Plan, Detained in Remote Jungle Camp,” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/world/americas/us-migrants-panama-jungle-camp.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare)
My friends, as Christians we need to be standing up to our government over the treatment of our fellow human beings. These things ought not to be so.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.