Victimmigration

“What’s that?”

Each time I drive to or from San Diego, CA on Interstate 5 with a first time visitor to the area, they always exclaim, “What’s that?” They are pointing out the window to an upcoming sign posted distinctly at the side of the freeway. These bright yellow signs contain the contrasting dark image of an adult, holding hands with two children, one on each side. They are running.

“What’s that?” is indicative of the level of awareness and involvement of the Christian community regarding our existing immigration policy that systematically oppresses God’s children. The purpose of this expose is to change the posture of the Christian community in the U.S. from a position of “What’s that?” to “That’s what!”

The Call:

As I read my Bible, I am continually reassured by the penchant of our God to see what is going on down here, and His ability to direct His attention to the voices that seem to be drowned out by the chatter of man.

In Exodus Chapter 3, God appears to Moses out of a heartfelt concern for the plight of His people.  “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.[i]

Public policy that oppressed a certain segment of God’s children had become acceptable practice by the people of Egypt. It is interesting to note how often the Bible illustrates that which becomes ‘acceptable public policy’ in the eyes of man, is actually a distinct abomination in the sight of our God.

Today in the United States, we are modern day witnesses and participants in supporting a public policy that currently oppresses millions of God’s children. Pundits have even boldly advanced the following argument, as written in Exodus: 8Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9″Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” [ii] In other words, rather than viewing the oppression of His people as something the Christian must act against, many of us have become caught up in the “threat argument” that these aliens pose to us, tacitly supporting the oppression of existing public policy, contrary to the heart of God. Other Christians simply stand around with their hands in their pockets, whistling in an attempt to ignore the situation.

Something must change. Scripture clearly indicates that God is not going to change His heart with regard to the oppression of His people. Public policy won’t change until the Christian community comes together to provide the voice for the muffled cries of His children. These cries are currently drowned out by the media manufactured, secular agenda of mainstream priorities in the U.S. that invade our ears, eyes and minds on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, as it was for Moses, such is our lot today. It is through our obedient compliance to His Word that things will change. Yet, we must be the ones’ to heed His call. It is a call to become involved in the fray where victims of oppression are created by public policy that creates and condones “man’s inhumanity to man,” as characterized in the following by Francis Schaeffer:

“If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross, and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in Himself, then Christians should be the first into the field against what is wrong—including man’s inhumanity to man.”[iii]

The Mexodus:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics have outnumbered African Americans residing in the U.S. since of July 1, 2002.[iv] This is a 58% increase in the figure reported for the 1990 census. Less than 60% of all Mexican-Americans hold a U.S. passport.[v] Hispanic families are reported to average more than three children per family while the remainder of U.S. families average under two. According to one author, “Anyway you look at it, the future of the United States is a Hispanic one. The Latino wave is unstoppable.”[vi]

Every 100 minutes, an illegal immigrant from Mexico or Latin America successfully crosses the border into United States. The issue of oppression is rampant within The Mexodus: The plight of millions of Mexican citizens fleeing to the United States motivated solely by the hope of a better life. This reality is created by the improbability and hopelessness of providing their families with a better future, escaping the certainty of subsistence level poverty in their country of origin. This is our modern day Exodus I am referring to as The Mexodus.

Through June 30, 2004, there have been a reported 880,000 arrests of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the U.S./Mexican border (versus 932,000 “total illegal entrants” at all 317 U.S. entry points and borders in fiscal 2003.[vii] (Period October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003). The “estimate” is that 2 – 3 times as many persons successfully cross the border than are caught. Depending upon whose numbers you choose to select, there are an estimated 9-15 million undocumented Mexican citizens presently residing in the United States.[viii]

Chillegals:

One critically important dimension of the Mexodus issue is the well-being of the children of illegal Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.. I will refer these innocent children here as ‘Chillegals.’ Most of these children began their journey to our country as infants, wrapped in blankets, and coddled in the arms of their parents as they made their way across the border. As infants and children, they did not give their consent to the decision of their parents. In fact, they were victimized by their parents. Victimization is defined as “adversity resulting from being made a victim.”

Most Christians would agree that prostitution, the use of illegal drugs and illicit gambling are crimes. Although “crimes” in the legal sense of the word and proscribed by Scripture, our society has labeled these acts as “victimless crimes” because “nobody other than those consenting to the act are harmed.”  I think we can all agree that this “victimless” stuff is nonsense can’t we? When it comes to victimless crimes, we know that prostitution, drug abuse and gambling cause harm to others, well beyond those involved “in the act.” All “victimless crimes” contain the element of “one consenting adult engaging in illicit behavior.”

Victimmigration:

As it relates to the plight of the millions of Chillegals residing in the U.S., these infants and children never had the capacity to consent or dissent to the actions taken by their parents. Yet, we hold them responsible and oppress them, based upon the immoral treatment afforded them under current public policy. This is Victimmigration: The ongoing oppression of infants and children of illegal Mexican immigrants in the U.S.

We oppress them in the following ways:

  • No social security cards
  • No drivers licenses
  • No air travel
  • Limit the opportunities for qualified candidates to pursue higher education.
  • No opportunity to work legally
  • We prevent them from participating in and contributing to our society…the only home they have ever known.
  • We perpetuate oppression: A vicious, immoral, unnecessary cycle.
  • We encourage the proliferation of poverty-ravaged subcultures within the U.S.

The Christian Call To Arms:

The Call To Arms for the Christian Community in the United States is to reach out and embrace these infants and children who have become non-consenting victims of U.S. Victimmigration policy. Their innocent voices cannot be heard by bureaucrats and the politicians in power in Washington D.C. Francis Schaeffer encourages us to speak up and act on behalf of the oppressed, as summarized in the following:

“The Christian should be in the front line, fighting the results of man’s cruelty, for we know it is not what God has made. We are able to be angry at the results of man’s cruelty without being angry at God or being angry at what is normal.”[ix]

Consider the following inspiration from our Holy Bible:

Numbers 15: 15The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: 16The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.’ ” [x]

Jeremiah 7: ” 5If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. 8But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. [xi]

Ezekiel 47: 21″You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance,” declares the Sovereign LORD. [xii]

Zechariah 7: 8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9″This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’ 11″But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. 12They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. 13″ `When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. 14`I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’ “[xiii]

Conclusion:

It is my prayer that your soul shall hear the voice of our Lord Jesus as He speaks in Luke Chapter 4:

18″The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[xiv]

Our choice is no different today than the one that confronted Moses a few thousand years ago. Will we continue to attempt to reply to Him, as Moses did, saying, 13″O Lord, please send someone else to do it?”[xv] Can we hear him responding to our apathy and feeble attempts to avoid acting upon His commands as He shouts: 11″Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” [xvi]

Our Call to Arms as Christian’s regarding the Victimmigration issue in the United States, is clearly captured in the following words from Jesus Christ that continue to ricochet through the corridors of time:

Mark 10: 13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And He took the children in his arms, put His hands on them and blessed them. [xvii]

As you lift your arms to worship and embrace Jesus, be reminded to bow down and embrace the cause of His Children who have become victims of immoral, modern day public policy in the United States…the children of Victimmigration. This is the Christian Call to Arms.

He won’t “send somebody else” to accomplish His work on this Earth. He’s counting on you. So are His children.

Bow down. Embrace this cause today. Allow your “What’s that?” to become a “That’s what I am called to do as a disciple of Jesus Christ?”

NOTES:


[i] Exodus 3: 7-10  Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[ii] Exodus 1:8 -10 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[iii] Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, InterVarsity Press Copyright (c) 1968 p. 136

[iv] U.S. Bureau of the Census. June 18, 2003.

[v] The Latino Electorate- 2002 National Survey of Latinos, Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2002.

[vi] Ramos, Jorge The Latino Wave, Copyright (c) 2004 by Jorge Ramos, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. NY, NY p. 238

[vii] Performance and Annual Report – Fiscal Year 2003 – U.S. Customs and Border Protection – U.S. Department of Homeland Security,

[viii] Performance and Annual Report – Fiscal Year 2003 – U.S. Customs and Border Protection – U.S. Department of Homeland Security, p. 68… NOTE: As indicated in a memorandum from the Commissioner of  U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2003,[viii] the overall accuracy of the numbers reported by Border Patrol and Customs/Immigration Enforcement remain in doubt. The Commissioner states: “Customs had four outstanding material weaknesses at the beginning of FY 2003. Although we are well on our way to resolving a number of these weaknesses, until they are closed the existing deficiencies in the quality and adequacy of data provided by Customs financial accounting and reporting systems prevent me from providing reasonable assurance as of  September 30, 2003, that Customs overall controls and financial management systems were in conformance with standards prescribed by the Comptroller General of the United States.”

[ix] Schaeffer, Francis A. He Is There and He Is Not Silent, Tyndale House Publishers Copyright (c) 1972 by Francis A. Schaeffer  p. 29

[x] Numbers 15:15-16 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xi] Jeremiah 7:5-8 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xii] Ezekiel 47:21-23 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xiii] Zechariah 7: 8-14 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xiv]Luke 4:18-19 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved

[xv] Exodus 4:13 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[xvi] Exodus 4:11-12 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[xvii] Mark 10: 13-16 Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Bible NIV. Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 SoftKey Multimedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.