I think it has a lot more to do with the high percentage of immigrants. Miami has over 60% foreign-born residents, making it one of the largest cities in the country with this high a percentage. As anyone who has traveled to Central or South America will recognize, traffic signals, lane markings, and such seem to have little impact on drivers.

My daughter, however, has a yet another explanation for the statistic: it has been exactly three years since we moved to Miami!

Myers suggests that the answer to the boomers’ situation lies with immigrants. Immigrant families tend to have more children, are hard-working, and need many of the homes that the boomers are vacating in their attempt to downsize. Myers uses California as a model for what could take place throughout the country. For the first time, families with Latino last names led the list of home buyers in California.

The message of this book is extremely important. We need each other. Previous generations have built the structure and the climate for a healthy life, and immigrants can provide the manpower and financial resources to maintain it. Rather than being a scourge on our society, immigrants can actually be a part of the solution.

It reminds me of my family. The Holways go back to early colonial years. In fact, one descendant was a signer of the Declaration of Independence (Josiah Bartlett). Among all my dad’s siblings and their children, I am the only male who, in turn, has a male child. So my son will carry on the Holway name. Here’s the interesting part: I am adopted from Korea, and my son is adopted from Argentina. So the one to carry the Holway name into future generations will be the adopted immigrant son of an adopted immigrant son.

This same scenario is being played out in churches throughout the country. Older generations need the younger ones to carry on the work. If we alienate the younger generations, what will happen to our churches? They will continue to age, and eventually die. We desperately need to find a way to begin a dialogue between the generations and with immigrant communities. We’re all in this together.

Jim

The whole issue of obedience to the law is complicated. I know preachers who have violated the US Treasury laws and traveled to Cuba to preach and teach (they did not violate Cuban laws, only US laws). I know preachers who have smuggled Bibles into the former Soviet Union and more recently into China, in violation of Russian and Chinese laws. I know people who don’t break the letter of the law, but live and operate in gray areas where the law is ambiguous and vague. I know people who regularly and willfully violate the speed limit laws of this country. How do we handle these situations in our churches? Is getting a speeding or parking ticket a sin? Does it necessitate a religious response, such as going forward and confessing sin?

Yes, many immigrants entered into this country without proper documentation. Many others entered legally but overstayed their visas. What is the penalty for these actions? Deportation. There is rarely a fine or other punishment, because this type of violation is not the same as murder or theft. As far as I understand, they are not considered criminal offenses.

The common idea that immigrants take advantage of the free services our country offers without paying anything for them is totally false. Undocumented immigrants, like every other person in this country, pay sales tax, gasoline taxes, automobile taxes, and property taxes (through their rent payments). These monies go directly back into the community structures and services. The only taxes that undocumented immigrants could avoid would be federal and state taxes which require the filing of a return. But even there, undocumented workers are paying — and paying big. A recent Associated Press article shows that undocumented immigrants are paying federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare to the tune of billions of dollars. And most of them will never see that money again in their retirement. They are actually paying for our retirement. I have helped people without Social Security numbers apply for a Tax ID Number (TIN) so that they could pay their taxes. About three-fourths of all undocumented immigrants are helping the Social Security system maintain its solvency.

So yes, undocumented immigrants do pay taxes and are paying for the schools, hospitals and other services we all enjoy in this country. They want to be a part of our society, but the current laws are providing little help in solving the situation. What do we do with the 10 million undocumented people who are here, now, in our country? Suggestions range from deporting all of them to granting all of them amnesty. Currently, there is no system in place for any of them to become legal workers. There are no legal channels to follow. They just don’t exist. And that’s the problem. The laws aren’t serving the needs of our current situation. And how do you change the laws? It generally comes after years of discussion and protest.

More to come…

The Bible is the story of God’s dealings with immigrants. The first migrants in the Bible were the very first people to walk the earth, Adam and Eve. God’s people have been on both sides of the immigration issue: they lived as aliens in other countries (both as forced and voluntary migrants), and they hosted aliens in their country. God himself became an immigrant (of sorts) when he left heaven and dwelt on the earth.

Even though sin was the cause of Adam and Eve’s forced relocation from Eden, God still demonstrated compassion and care for them (Gen. 3.21). We get a further glimpse into the heart of God in his instructions regarding the treatment of aliens. God wanted Israel to treat aliens with compassion and caring, because they knew firsthand the hardships of living as aliens in a foreign culture (Ex. 23.9).

According to Jesus, after the command to love God, the next most important command was to love one’s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12.29-31). This second command comes from Lev. 19.18. Later in that same chapter, God commands the Israelites to not mistreat aliens, and then commands them to “love (the alien) as yourself” (Lev. 19.33-34). Feel the effect of this command: “Love your neighbor and the alien as yourself.” Jesus further illuminates God’s heart by explaining that one’s neighbor is not defined by proximity, ethnicity nor nationality, but rather by necessity (Luke 10.29-37). My neighbor is the one who is in a disadvantaged state; my neighbor is the one who is in a state of need.

God’s concern for widows and orphans is understandable – they are defenseless and have no one to support them, financially or otherwise. Aliens complete the triad of God’s special provision because they, too, are in a disadvantaged position (Ex. 22:21-23). In an agrarian culture, access to land is the key to survival and prosperity. Since aliens were not allowed to own land in Israel, they had to depend on the graciousness of the land owners (Lev. 19.10). As slaves in Egypt, the Israelites had been in a similar state of dependency.

Paul’s instruction to obey the laws of the land is often mentioned in discussions about immigration (Rom. 13.1-7). I find it puzzling that we would grant our pagan and secular government the authority to “trump” God’s own words on issues of morality and ethics. When the law says that says abortion is legal and permissible, do we listen to the law or the heart of God? The law said that slavery was permissible until the 13th amendment (1865) declared it illegal. The law said that women could not vote, and it took another amendment (the 19th in 1920) to mandate that people could not be prohibited from the right to vote based on gender. Is the law our guide to tell us how we ought to treat people?

As Christians, our concern should not stop with the question, “What does the law say?” We have a divine obligation to press the matter further. What is God’s heart in this matter? What does He say or think? When we find a law that goes against God’s intent for humankind, how should we respond?

It is very interesting that the reason the Israelites were to treat aliens with compassion was because they were limited in their employment options. Immigrants today face very similar limitations to gainful employment. How should we respond? How does God expect us to treat people who are in a disadvantaged state because they do not have the papers to work in this country? Do we hide behind the law as a secular Corban (Mark 7.11), or do we step out with courage and boldness to challenge unethical and immoral laws?

The way I see it, for Christians, the immigration debate rests on this question: Should we obey men or God?