Derailed by bigotry?

Once again the illegal immigration issue in the United States has made headlines. A bipartisan group in the US Senate has been struggling to pass a new law which will eventually give citizenship to the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the country. I have been taken aback by some of the subtly bigoted rhetoric used against illegal immigrants that is emanating from some quarters of the political scene here in the USA which seeks to derail this bill.

The Torah is clear about how immigrants must be treated. The Children of Israel were commanded that, after conquering the Holy Land, they must be sensitive to the feelings of the stranger: "The stranger who lives with you should be as a citizen among you, and you should love him as yourself; for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the L-rd your God" (Leviticus chapter 19: 33-34). This law goes across the board: all strangers must be treated equally.

The only qualifying standard for the stranger is that they do not pose an existential risk to either the culture or to the security of the Land of Israel. Thus, a stranger living in ancient Israel was obliged to renounce idle worship and agree to live by the seven ethical laws known as the "Seven Noahide Laws." According to the Torah such strangers must be given access to free medical treatment and dealt with fairly and equally in all financial and employment matters.

In fact the Torah in 36 separate places commands the Israelites to love the stranger. The reason for this is obvious: bigotry is a natural human failing. If humans are left to their own devices they will often take on prejudiced attitudes and views. The Egyptians were guilty of this towards the Israelites and God wanted to rigorously warn them against acting in a similarly despicable manner towards others.

Newfound commitment to law and order

Clearly therefore, in a society which prides itself on having Biblical values, there must be an extra effort to have sympathy towards the stranger. Nonetheless it is not clear that these modern-day illegal immigrants who broke the laws of a country should be given a free path to citizenship without first having shown remorse for their actions. It can be argued that a person who willingly broke the law is a danger to the civilization of a society. Obviously there must be consequences for coming in to a country illegally with the intention to stay and continue breaking laws.

Extreme positions on both sides of the debate—amnesty and forced repatriation—are morally untenable according to the Bible which clearly holds that there must be consequences for those who break prohibitions and simultaneously takes an extremely liberal view towards the “stranger”.

This is the tight balance that must be had in this debate. First ensuring that the illegal immigrants are not subjected to unfair intolerant attitudes and second making certain that their breaking of the countries laws are not carried out with impunity.

The current bipartisan Immigration Reform Bill now being considered by the US Senate seems to be taking this reasonable approach. Indeed it has taken a Biblical view to this problem allowing Illegal immigrants the opportunity to “repent” and demonstrate that they have accepted that their actions were unlawful and show that they intend, in the future, to become law-abiding citizens.

Under the new law the illegal immigrants’ newfound commitment to law and order is put to the test by having them monitored—if they break any law in the future they lose all their new legal status. It is a shame that deep seated prejudice hiding behind political arguments and rhetoric seems to be derailing this fair-minded and morally defendable immigration bill.

Rabbi Levi Brackman is executive director of Judaism in the Foothills and the author of numerous articles on a whole range of topics and issues, many of which can be found on his website