Unto the Least of These

I heard someone this week railing that most of America's problems were the result of illegal immigrants.  He said that when Alabama passed their law targeting illegal immigration, that their unemployment rate went down and most of the illegals left their state.  

He said that illegal immigrants don't respect the laws of the land and they never will.  They don't pay income taxes.  They bring drugs to the U.S. from Mexico.  They bring their whole family and send back for more.  

He said they use our schools, our social services, and they don't even bother learning the language.

I wonder if he thinks he is better than illegal immigrants:  

I never swam the Rio Grande to get into Mexico, so that makes me better.

I've never been an illegal immigrant, so that makes me better.

I've never smuggled drugs, so that makes me better.

I've always been an American, so that makes me better.

No.  It may not be right, but that doesn't make you better.  God does not favor Americans over Mexicans!  Most of those who come here illegally do so because their country has become a hopeless land of drug gangs on one side and low-wage corporations on the other.  Many of those corporations are based in America.  

And before you say anything else, look at the labels on all of your clothes, nick-knacks, and appliances, and see where they were made.  Then do a little research on the labor standards for those countries.  Some of them "employ" children as young as six.  They make about a dollar a day (or less), and work over eight hours a day.  And where does the money come from?  They are exploited by big foreign money in their own countries, so they leave their homelands looking for a better start.

Please stop talking trash against illegal immigrants, and start acting against exploitation, in the third world and here at home.  Jesus said, "Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me."  I am not in favor of illegal immigration, but I believe that a person would have to be at a pretty desperate place in their life to pack up and cross out of the country of their birth.  If Americans didn't use cheap illegal labor here in the U.S., then there would be no draw.  But while they are here, we should look at them like the mission field which has come to us.  How many Christians will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars each years, just to spend a week in a foreign land to help those less fortunate?  And how many wish they had the money to go on a foreign mission trip?  There is nothing wrong with mission trips, and they do cost money.  But don't you see the irony?  Those same people that would be visited on a mission trip are jumping our borders in desperation, because they just couldn't take the poverty any more. 

Christian, it boils down to this:  Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

American, be careful how you treat the foreigner who walk between your shores.  Someday it may be you who is wishing for understanding at your desperate attempt to escape hardship and struggle. 

--Johnie