Mine! Mine! Mine!! (On Immigration Policy)

By The Rev. Canon Kathleen Kelly, Canon Evangelist
Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento, California

Written for the Sacramento News and Review

Parents wait eagerly to hear what their babe’s first word will be. Will it be “Momma” or “Dadda?” Quite often, it is “Mine!!” We want a word right away to stake a claim to what we think is ours and nobody else’s.

Have you thought about immigration policy lately? The issues look different when we see them in one person’s life than when we analyze numbers. I met Jose at a gas stop in the Coachella Valley. Was he 16, 18, maybe 14? He had innocent eyes. He asked in broken English if I was going to Los Angeles. I wasn’t, so I asked in broken Spanish if he had food and water. He didn’t. I solved that problem for a few hours, but I still really wish I had dumped my plans for the day and gone to Los Angeles, where he no doubt knew someone who would befriend him. It’s all too easy to picture a mother somewhere to the south of here worrying about him. She didn’t want to kiss him good-bye and send him north. Forces bigger than either of them sent him here in search of funds to help his family.

Some say the way to help Jose and his mother is to build really, really big walls that will keep all the Jose’s of the world from coming north. Others point out that big walls have created a new industry for organized crime in Mexico—charging exorbitant sums to get people around, over or through big walls. This element grows increasingly intimidating, and some fear their alliances will facilitate entry into the US by terrorists.

Could the Bible have anything useful to say about such a modern day problem? The laws in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) try to describe how we can get as close as possible to God’s intentions for this life in our imperfect condition. They implore the people to treat aliens just like family, a very high standard. This is pretty startling, because surrounding rules repeatedly tell the people to stay at arm’s length from the cultures and gods of other countries.

There is helpful wisdom in this Biblical mandate to treat aliens like family. It reminds us that we are not separate from our neighbors to the south and cannot pretend to be with any big walls. The problems of Mexico are the problems of the US, and vice versa. Nothing will work unless we work together with the people and government of Mexico to forge solutions to all the contributing problems.

The Rev. Canon Kathleen Kelly
Canon Evangelist
October, 2006