Ideology and Immigration

The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God ~ Leviticus 19:34.

Exodus 22:21

Exodus 23:9

Leviticus 19:33


My problem with political ideologies of either the right or the left, is that they provide pre-designed templates to apply to the issues, rather than forcing one to think through specific political and social problems on the substance of the issues.

Karl Marx used the term “mystification” to describe the distorting aspect of ideology to deceive people into accepting a condition of oppression or exploitation. This is why he called religion the “opiate of the masses” to the extent that religion provided an ideology that allowed the lower classes to be lulled into a state of exploitation and justified economic injustice. Subsequent thinkers pointed out that the distorting effects of ideology can be applied not only to the exploitation of the poor and workers, but also in a socialist or communist context where the workers are supposedly in charge, and yet terrible repression occurred. In other words, the distortion of truth that happens with ideology is equally likely on the left or on the right. Ideology serves to cloak the naked grasp for power with robes of righteousness and truth. But Ideology inevitably distorts truth to make it fit the left or right template. If the truth is a square peg, it must be rounded out to fit into the round ideological hole.

This makes it quite difficult to be a non-ideological truth seeker. It is much easier to have someone hand you a pre-designed template, than it is to try to understand and think through the substance of relevant issues of our day, each one on its own merits.

This brings me to immigration reform and illegal immigration. I have dear friends on the right and the left who hold entirely incompatible views on this issue. Nevertheless, there are very clear practical and moral issues involved that demand sorting out the truth and avoiding empty political rhetoric, nativist fear and populist ideology.

Here are some relevant facts on this issue:

-Most estimates indicate that there are at least 17 million illegal immigants in the U.S.A., 12 million alone from Mexico. If these people are removed from our economy, as some suggest, hotel chains will not be able to clean rooms, tomatos and strawberries will not be picked – which Americans are going to be willing to take those jobs EVEN if they are unemployed? Answer – almost none. What are the conservatives going to do, put them on boxcars and send them south? paLEEEASE -- give me a freakin break ....

-Illegal immigrants should be brought into the legal system and required to pay taxes and contribute to health care and education.

-By resolving the status of 17 million people living underground, the Customs and Border agents would be freed to focus most of their resources on stopping terrorists at the border.

-Morally, the Judeo-Christian tradition is very, very clear that immigrants and aliens should be treated with kindness, respect and mercy.

To consider one possible 'Christian' view in favor of rational immigration reform see this article by Allison Johnson quoting Rev. Jim Wallis.

Anti-Immigrant Law Passes in Arizona, ‘We Will Not Comply’

It is amazing to me, how Christian conservatives who are very literal about the scriptures in some areas can so easliy dodge the plain and simple imperatives of scripture when it suits them. Now, having said that, it does not make me a liberal. That is part of the problem with the ideological polarization ... people are forced to choose sides -- I refuse to do so. I choose to be on Jesus' side ...

but, on the specific issue of immigration reform, the weight of evidence, legal and economic rationality and moral imperative tilts clearly against the conservative point of view. I have always liked and respected John McCain as a man of prinicple who was able to work pragmatically across the aisle with Democrats. If he is forced to support the misguided Arizona law for political reasons in order to get the fearful and angry votes of Arizona conservatives, I will be deeply disappointed. Do the right thing John -- even if it ends your career. Go out on a high note!