ALIENS AMONG US

If you read American history you will know about the immigration problems in New York in the years preceding the Civil War. The Potato Famine in Ireland sent thousands of poor Irish to the tenements and ghettoes of New York City where they sought to scratch out a hardscabble living while being hated and abused by the ethnic groups that came before. When the Italians came along later the Irish had someone they could then hate and abuse. America has a history of hating and abusing newcomers even though our statue in the harbor says something about bringing “us your poor, your huddled masses.”

I lived in the Chicago area for about eleven years through college and my twenties. I discovered Chicago to be one of the most precisely racist major cities I have ever seen. I say “precisely” because Chicago has very precise ethnic neighborhoods. These blocks are Italian, these are Polish, these are African American, these are Mexican, this is Chinatown, etc. Except for a couple of years when I lived in a predominately Italian suburb, I spent my years safely ensconced in the suburbs. The racism didn’t really affect me. The movement of new ethnic groups into established neighborhoods which triggered more movement and a redrawing of the neighborhood boundaries in the city didn’t touch me or cause me a moment’s concern.

During Bush’s eight-year presidency the issue of illegal aliens was continually debated. What should be done? Should a long wall be built along the border with Mexico? Do we need to have more border patrols? Citizens created their own posse of border patrols and took matters into their own hands. There was a lot of hissing and fussing about the illegal aliens coming into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and especially California. I visited my family here in California a number of times over the last eight years and heard people calling the state “Mexifornia.” (They weren’t smiling.)

Back in our lily white communities in Michigan I heard a lot of distressed people talking about the problem of illegal aliens. It was a touchy subject with some of my friends. “They are taking away jobs. They are getting free health care. They’re just coming here to have their babies so they will be American citizens. They are putting a burden on our welfare and educational systems. We are footing the tab for them being here illegally. My grandparents had to learn English when they came here.”

Now I live here. Now I have to have an opinion. Now I have to do something. It sure looks a lot different from this perspective. Let me make an admission: I’ve always been somewhat of a bleeding heart on some issues. I’m plagued with “white guilt.” As a student of history I recognize that the USA simply took all this land from Mexico in the great Mexican War in which all our Civil War generals first made names for themselves (before they turned on one another a decade later). We wanted this land so we took it. I can’t get away from the nagging fact that this land was theirs. (I wonder if the Israelites had bleeding hearts who felt guilty about taking Canaan away from the Hivites, Jebusites, and all the other “ites?”) In fact, when I drive south to Los Angeles I pass through a massive ranch called the Tejon Ranch. The sign along the freeway shows that this ranch was founded when California was still Alta California, Mexico.



There are many illegals in our area and our neighborhoods here. I don’t know who they are. They don’t wear any insignia on their sleeves and they are not tattooed (at least not yet). They mix in perfectly with all my other neighbors. They work on our farms. They harvest our almonds. They pick our strawberries. They have Social Security deducted from their paychecks. I know this much. None of my kids would ever do the jobs these folks are doing. Also, come down to Mexico with me and see the poverty, hardship, and hunger there. If I was living there I would do everything in my power to get up here and feed my family.

I don’t have to take a political position. I have the luxury of saying that I am here in Shafter, California to offer the gospel of Jesus Christ to all and to minister to their needs in the name of Jesus Christ regardless of citizenship status. I’ll let others debate the politics and economics of the situation. I just know that I have far more “stuff” than any of the illegal aliens around me and I’m not hurting because they are here. (No, I’m NOT an economist and, no, I DON’T know the long term effects of their presence, and I’m not sure I CARE.)

Where did all this come from? Exodus 23:6, 9. Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt. Most of us never knew how it feels to be aliens. My question has to do with what the body of Christ will do.