Welcoming the Stranger

Who is Just a Bit Stranger Than You.



The biblical mandate to welcome the stranger and not mistreat the "alien" because you were aliens in the land of Egypt, and because we are all Sojourners traveling toward heaven, aliens to the Kingdom of God until we get there in God's eyes and because Matthew 25 makes this one of those "social justice" prerequisites to getting there, is obvious. We are a nation of immigrants and it is hard to find someone whose family didn't come from somewhere else-because there are precious few 100% native americans.



But some still can't stand that the trend in America demographically is to de-whiten the place. The melting pot is looking a bit too carmely for them. They have an overriding fear that everything will have to be bilingual -which would be bad because??? Some older white guys don't like to learn new languages and can't??.



The Immigration laws are clearly in need of some reforming-the country does have a "help wanted" sign for menial labor (particularly in hospitality and construction industries) with a "No Trespassing" sign next to it- but equitably how will be the challenge of the Century. The devil is in the details. Now, over twenty percent of the country is from a Spanish speaking country originally. Some call it the Conquistador's revenge. The response to the changing demographic of documented and undocumented has to be humane- and it has to still enforce our Rule of Law not undermine it at the same time.



One Mexican woman at the Brookings event moderated brilliantly by E.J.Dionne in the new Religion/Faith and public policy project Brookings is undertaking noted that no one is forced to hire anyone so the hype that 'they are taking all our jobs' is misplaced- people are free to hire whom they want. The fact is that people at starvation level too proud to beg will work for much less which undercuts the standard of living of the middle class unionized workers. They are union busters. They work for food.



A stranger is welcome typically if they show up and say- Hi, I am new, please help, I'll do anything to get a start. Where do I have to sign up and be counted- like they did at Ellis Island. They are not typically welcome if they break in the back door and squat, and help themselves to anything in the house.

That's not a 'stranger' but a thief.

The jury is out on whether undocumented form the bulk of the new identity theft rings, chop shop drug runners or whether that is a prejudicial over-criminalization assessment. The statistics do support that we are not catching all the undocumented that are clearly a criminal element. In some parts there is even a 'get over' ethic such that thievery is applauded culturally- especially from the wealthy Gringo.

So there has to be enforcement of the rules that underpin the Rule of Law that make societies function and respect for laws that protect everyone.


But the humanitarian response to people struggling to survive, find work and live has to be
in keeping with the compassion worthy of the gospels and the country. The balance of these two impulses is going to be trickier than a high wire trapeze act.

Another often overlooked reason why you want people present and accounted for is so they cannot be exploited- an undocumented worker will not report labor law violations-they will suffer in silence in what verges on slave labor treatment unless they believe they have recourse to the enforcement mechanisms we have to guard against such things. They will be too intimidated by the threat of deportation so suffer sometimes humiliating and degrading underpaid exploitative working conditions. That also undermines our Rule of Law. And it's just rotten.


So we all should start praying-both for the wisdom of Congress and the well-being of our latino Spanish speaking brothers and sisters. What is clear is that current policy is not working and needs a massive overhaul. State or National IDs don't trouble me -they do it in France. What troubles me is those people hiding from law enforcement under stolen IDs while integrating themselves and children into American society without wanting to pay for the privileges of citizenship. That is not every undocumented person's story- but it does beg the question-
do we need to make legalization of citizenship easier or harder or do we just give everyone here a free pass after the /asylum of the late 1980s didn't work?