Each year, as we prepare for the celebration of Passover, I am reminded that the holiday offers some guidance to Jews on how to ethically address the modern question of American immigration.
In the story of Exodus, God commands the Israelites to remember: "You shall not oppress the stranger; you know the heart of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." During Passover Jews are reminded that we were once strangers who were powerless in a foreign and hostile land. Of course most Americans, if they look in to their past, have ancestors who were refugees in a strange land, or who were oppressed as slaves.
The Torah further instructs in Leviticus: "When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Can we honestly say to ourselves that we don't "wrong" the immigrants who are strangers in our land when we allow them to be paid less than minimum wage, or look the other way when contractors fail to provide safety equipment to workers doing dangerous jobs? When families are torn apart? Or when we detain or deport people without the due process that our own citizens would expect if they were faced with losing their homes or their liberty? The Jews are commanded over and over to welcome the stranger, but lawmakers across the country want to make it a crime to provide assistance of any kind to an undocumented immigrant.
It's not an easy time to welcome the stranger. It's understandable that, after suffering murderous terrorist attacks by a group of foreigners, some wish to close our nation's doors and expel undocumented immigrants. But while we have a right to defend ourselves, that right does not free us of our moral obligation towards the overwhelming majority of immigrants who are not terrorists.
Through the centuries, Jews have gathered at Passover to retell the story of our liberation from bondage. By recalling the oppression of our people, we are reminded to cherish the freedom we now have, but also to avoid oppressing others. As the debate over immigration reform continues this year, we should all consider our deepest moral beliefs about how we should treat strangers, and how we would wish to be treated in a strange land, and make those beliefs heard in Congress in the weeks and months ahead.
Rebecca Walker: Mindy Lewis's Happy Family
With Passover rolling around, I find myself once again aware of my relationship to this traditional family gathering, gauging the particular breadth of my remove.
Bruce Feiler: Seder Talking Points: Seven Secrets of Passover
You, too, can be a seder know-it-all. Herewith are selected seder talking points to help you steer your Passover conversation away from the same tired jokes about matzah and constipation.
Brad Hirschfield: A Hebrew Bible-Based Immigration Policy
What seems clear from scripture is that loose borders or barriers to entry are only reasonable if accompanied by quite strict rules about participation once having arrived in the new community.
employers give illegal aliens jobs is because they will
work for below minimum wage in substandard conditions.
This allows the employers to socialize the costs that come
along with the illegals, and privatize the increased profits
they realize as taxpayers shoulder the burden of criminal
justice, education and medical care associated with illegal
immigration.
WE are NOT oppressing the illegals. It is instead THEY who are responsible for oppressing US by driving down wages for the poorly educated American workers. There is a reason that we bar them legally from coming here. We have MORE than enough Americans who can and will do those jobs if they are paid enough. Recall the ICE raid on the Swift plant in Denver. They took so many illegals out that the company had to increase wages by $3/hr to get enough workers to replace them. I am sure that the legal American workers were quite happy to see that increase, especially since their UNION had NOT been able to get them that raise.
By the way, if you buy some land in the US, you too can become a legal visitor and possibly get a green card as long as you come in legally.
They have broken the system by allowing our laws to be broken. No more anchor babies.
No more Illegal immigration. Go Home Im tired of supporting them, Im tired that as a citizen they have more rights while our govt conviently looks the other way. Enforce the Law.
BUT they should do so legally. It is not practical to hunt and grab millions to kick out of the US, but they should pay a heavy fine to slowly become American citizens. They cost us a fortune for schools, jails, hospital care [as just one guy in bad shape was going to cost taxpayer's a million bucks! ]
Democratics in Congress tend to be too sympathetic on this issue [and the GOP typically nuts]. We need a common sense way to take care of this, tighten our borders to stop more of it. That includes no citizenship for the children, let them earn it over 10-15 years. Sorry but real US citizens deserve our rights, our benefits, other's simply do not.
The most efficient means of solving the problem is to use E-Verify and no match letters to force the illegals out of work and jobs. They will then LEAVE on their own. Then we have to erect fencing and secure the border. Two easy steps that we have at our disposal NOW!