While the debate in our country rages about immigration reform, I would like to offer a different perspective. I am, again, not trying to be political but wanting to offer another viewpoint from a Christian’s perspective.
This week I received an e-mail from a missionary friend who is in Southeast Asia. He ministers among refugees who have fled their country, but are not welcome in the one they are in. The e-mail I received told me that a group of Christian refugees had been captured and were going to be sent back over the border, where officials were waiting for them. He said that normally “repatriation” happens with international oversight, but that this exchange happened with the sanction of both governments away from such supervision. One man, who had become an acquaintance of my missionary friend, was beaten within an inch of his life, handcuffed, and drowned in front of the other refugees. The fate of these other refugees, who had been handcuffed, was not known. This kind of treatment is not the exception, but the rule.
There are those who would say that deporting those who have entered the USA illegally is inhumane. I say that others are treated far less humanely than simply sending them back or prohibiting them from coming. In America, illegal foreigners are often recipients of benefits, not victims of laws. When I think of the way that other people around the world suffer, the way America treats “illegals” doesn’t seem so bad.
However, there are differences between illegal aliens in the US and refugees in Asia. Both are unwelcome and both are there illegally, yes. But aliens are leaving their country to live a better life, while these refugees are leaving for the right to live period. Often they live in squalor in refugee camps and receive no benefits. Aliens coming into this country are treated badly by those ferrying them into the country, while the government is the one treating them badly in Asia. Illegal aliens have an opportunity to become citizens, while those in Asia have no such hope.
When I think of how Christians in other nations are treated, I thank God for the country He has allowed me to live in, and for the way we treat those who are here, even those here illegally.
Illegal aliens in many cases should be pitied, but not as badly as my fellow-believers in other countries, who are being killed. Paul, in Colossians 4:18, exhorted others to “Remember my bonds.” How much more for those who are truly suffering?
For information of how Christians are being treated around the world, feel free to visit these sites:
This was confusing. No countries were mentioned, and we don’t know why the Christians were in a country illegally. The writer sets the bar pretty low by saying it could be worse – I expect more candor and compassion from someone who states they are Christian. This struck me as an attempt to support a politically conservative message without having to be Christian. Very political, very little Christian compassion.
The author was not able to mention the countries for security reasons for his missionary friend. The refugees had left their country because of persecution that they received for simply being members of another race. The point was that sometimes illegal aliens are portrayed as victims of American policy by certain media outlets, when the truth is that they are treated much more humanely by our country than refugees in Asia and other parts of the world. Christians, especially, are being killed all over the world, yet this doesn’t fire up human rights rhetoric as much.