A Call for Repentance for the Anti-Immigrant Sins of a Nation

By Chuck Poole

Cruelty is a sin. That such a self-evident truth might need to be said aloud had never occurred to me until I witnessed my own nation’s recent actions concerning migrants and immigrant communities within our borders.

Our nation is currently conducting a campaign of cruelty against immigrants. From the intentional deportation of undocumented immigrants to third countries where they have no family, to the revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of persons who came to the US seeking refuge from danger, to the arrest of immigrants when they appear for their Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) appointments, to the effort to annul birthright citizenship, to the ruthless creation and gleeful celebration of “Alligator Alcatraz,” our nation has embraced a campaign of cruelty against migrating families. People of faith need to respond to that campaign with a clear and united “no.”

Immigration enforcement concerned with public safety would focus its resources on detaining people who commit violent crimes. But rounding up law-abiding undocumented immigrants at worksites, clinics, houses of worship and parks is not about public safety; it is an institutionalized campaign of cruelty intended to intimidate. One small but painful example of this campaign’s human cost — one I learned about literally while writing these words — comes from a church in the Texas border region. The church, fearing ICE detentions, deemed it necessary to cancel its Vacation Bible School (VBS) for weeks to protect the safety of its congregation.

What can people of faith do in the face of this campaign of fear against our immigrant neighbors? Here are a few possible responses to this critical moral moment — a moment when the soul of our nation is at stake:

1. We can carry with us, everywhere we go, a small card with some verses of Scripture that speak to God’s concern for — and our responsibility to — migrating people. Among them are: “You shall not be cruel to the immigrant” — Exodus 23:9; “You shall love the immigrant as yourself” — Leviticus 19:34; “Because all the land in the world belongs to God, in the eyes of God we are all immigrants” — Leviticus 25:23; “You shall not deprive an immigrant of justice” — Deuteronomy 24:17; and “Show kindness to one another, and do not oppress the immigrant” — Zechariah 7:9-10.
2. Those who are able can go in-person to the nearest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office and register their opposition to the current ICE operations at worksites, schools, parks, clinics and houses of worship. I have made a handful of such visits, seeking to communicate that our nation’s current approach to immigration enforcement is a campaign of cruelty against millions of our immigrant neighbors, and it needs to stop. I try to never come across as loud or dismissive, but instead to express my views in the way that Quakers call “gentle and plain” — with words that strive to be as clear as they are kind, and as kind as they are clear. There may be many ways to have such conversations.
3. As a small act of solidarity with our Spanish-speaking immigrant neighbors, we can learn an important sentence or two in Spanish. A few to consider include: “Ame al inmigrante como a sí mismo” — You shall love the immigrant as yourself; “No oprimas al inmigrante” — You shall not oppress the immigrant; and “En el nombre y el Espíritu de Jesucristo, llamamos al gobierno de los Estados Unidos a arrepentirse de sus pecados contra los inmigrantes” — In the name and spirit of Jesus Christ, we call upon the United States government to repent of its sins against immigrants.

In the face of our nation’s institutionalized, weaponized, militarized xenophobia, such responses seem so small, like trying to move the ocean with a thimble. But to go about our ordinary church life, saying nothing and doing nothing concerning this moral crisis, would be — to borrow an overused colloquialism — to “fiddle while Rome burns.” And if we wait until we can do something big before we do something small, we will never do anything at all. In this moral moment of crisis, one thing is certain: doing nothing is not an option.

If any corner of our nation has reached the point of canceling VBS for fear of detention and deportation, then it is time for people of faith in every corner of our country to call on our government to repent of its present national sin, and to say, in words as kind as they are clear and as clear as they are kind: “En el nombre y el Espíritu de Jesucristo, llamamos al gobierno de los Estados Unidos a arrepentirse de sus pecados contra los inmigrantes.”

— Chuck Poole retired in 2022 after 45 years of pastoral life. He served churches in Georgia, N.C., Washington, D.C. and Jackson, Miss. Chuck has also served as a “minister on the street” and is an advocate for interfaith conversation and welcome. He and his wife Marcia live in Birmingham, Ala. where he serves on the staff of Together for Hope (https://tfhope.org).

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