How to Respond to Open-Borders Christians 

Last week, 44 Catholic Democrats signed a statement condemning the current enforcement of immigration laws as contrary to Christian teachings. Even though they “believe every nation has the right to regulate its borders and to control immigration,” they also “affirm that people have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families” and that “border enforcement must be governed by justice and mercy.” In their view, agencies like ICE and CBP have “failed this moral standard” because of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, along with unnamed “detained migrants.”

Naturally, the automatic response to this kind of argument is to question the good faith of these supposed Catholics. Many of these same people also signed a statement in favor of abortion just three years ago and, being Democrats, have routinely dismissed Christian teachings against transgenderism, gay marriage, and secular indoctrination in schools. They are also closely aligned with socialism, an anti-religious ideology that has ruined so many thriving Christian nations. 

Although these are fair criticisms to make, they ultimately fail to take down what has become a profound stumbling block for conservative Christians. As a recent article on this issue illustrates, many conservative Christians are having serious misgivings about the deportations happening around the country. Are they being bad people for wanting deportations? 

Perhaps on an intuitive level, most of them feel that they are in the right; but it would still help to have a ready-made argument on hand, or at least offer some proper framing, to respond to open-border leftists who equate any and all immigration restriction with “cruelty.” Too often, immigration restrictionists feel forced to mischaracterize all illegal immigrants as violent criminals (many are, but not all of them) or ICE raids as instances of “social chemotherapy,” likening the removal of undesirable, poverty-stricken foreigners from American communities to a doctor removing a tumor capable of metastasizing.

Rather than resort to these unpleasant rationales, Christians should take on the main claims that (1) enforcing immigration law is always cruel and (2) that it breaks up families. In regard to the first claim, it’s fine to concede that it isn’t fun to watch people being arrested, detained, and deported. However, this is the consequence of breaking laws, and these laws were created and enforced for the common good. When laws either don’t exist or go unenforced, that common good dissolves and people suffer. Thus, even though no one likes to see an immigrant put in custody, this is, nonetheless, better than seeing countless American citizens being harmed, impoverished, or oppressed because immigration laws were not enforced.

Similarly, the breakup of families that often happens when deporting illegal aliens also seems to violate the sanctity of the home. Everyone’s heart broke for the cute 5-year-old in his blue cap whose father fled ICE agents coming to arrest him. However, this event was a consequence of at least one of his parents breaking the law. They are not spared punishment in the interest of keeping the family intact. Those upset with family separation should rather direct their concern toward these parents who put their families at risk of breakup by circumventing the immigration process. 

These rebuttals are more than sufficient to put one’s conscience at ease, but it is also helpful to think more deeply on this issue. In addition to considering the meanings of national sovereignty, borders, laws, and civic responsibility, one should reflect on the challenge of how to charitably respond to illegal immigration—and there is no better time to do so than during Lent.

Does welcoming a stranger really mean opening the border and providing permanent residence to one’s country? After all, Catholic Democrats quote from none other than Pope Francis, who asserted that Western nations must “welcome, protect, promote and integrate” incoming migrants. Should Christians be calling for indiscriminately taking in the world’s poor, offering them endless public assistance, and ignoring the many problems this brings to the native population? 

Prudence and logic would recommend that they should not. Global poverty won’t be removed and universal brotherhood won’t be achieved by simply dissolving borders and redistributing all of a developed nation’s wealth to those from the developing world. Rather, it will result in bedlam, balkanization, bankruptcy, and burnout. Nations and states that have already done so are all now managing their own decline. They have low birthrates, high crime rates, and increasingly authoritarian governments that punish any dissent. 

And rather than uniting Christians under a shared endeavor, the reality of mass migration has simply soured people on Christianity altogether. In too many cases, the Church has become just another grasping NGO that fosters the problems it pretends to solve. Saving souls and promoting a flourishing culture have become secondary concerns in most cases.

All the same, today’s Christians need to come up with a plan of what to do about a billion-plus people hoping to come into the country. The only real answer is one that nobody, particularly those on the Left, dares to mention: people from Western Christian countries must meet these unhappy outsiders where they are, civilize their societies, and make them self-sufficient. As in the past, this would mean taking uncomfortable measures to establish law and order in foreign lands, putting the native people to work and building up an economic infrastructure, and preaching the Christian Gospel and incorporating its principles into an operational governing system.

Although this challenges the Marxist ideologies that largely inform the beliefs of open-border advocates in the Church and beyond, it is much more compatible with Christian theology. After all, this is how the Church spread in the first place. It was not through facilitating endless mass migration into richer empires and nations; it was through sharing the Gospel with everyone everywhere and having foreign cultures conform to Christian teachings. 

It is highly unlikely that any Catholic Democrat would even entertain such an effort. But for Catholics who really do worry about their brothers and sisters around the world suffering persecution, deprivation, and constant strife, they should start considering what they can do personally and stop trying to foist unsustainable burdens onto their countrymen. If the calling is strong and persistent, God might be asking them to serve as missionaries or as the patrons of missionaries, not to engage in nihilistic agitation to erase borders and invite barbarism.