Doesn’t anybody read the scripture anymore?

The Arkansas legislature decided that some kids who graduate from our Arkansas high schools can’t go to college in Arkansas and pay the same in-state tuition as the rest of their classmates.  Even if they have been going to school together for their entire twelve years of education.  Even if they are outstanding scholars or first in their class.  Even if they were the leading scorer who filled the gym and stadium with cheers while they played for their hometown team. 

If their parents brought them here and the parents weren’t able to negotiate the Byzantine labyrinth of legal immigration -- which takes about as long as it takes for a child to go from first to twelfth grade -- then that child will be treated as an outsider.  Our legislature decided to punish the child for something the child had no control over.
 
So much for the scripture:  There shall be for both you and the resident alien a single statute, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you and the alien shall be alike before the Lord.  (Numbers 15:15)  The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  (Leviticus 19:34)

We’re not talking about a couple of proof texts.  This business of God’s expectation that we show hospitality and equal justice toward the alien, the stranger and the sojourner is a major theme in scripture.  In fact the Ten Commandments emerge out of a context of liberating an alien people from government oppression. 

But government oppression is what many of our neighbors are experiencing here in Northwest Arkansas.  Maria V. was brought to this country illegally by her husband who beat her brutally.  She’s survived the domestic violence and has applied for legal status.  But before the Immigration Service could process her application, Immigration and Customs Enforcement came to her door, arrested her and sent her to prison.  Her two children were at elementary school at the time.  They found out their mother was gone and wouldn’t be coming back when no one came to pick them up that afternoon. 

We think Immigration Enforcement got their big tip from some local law enforcement officers acting under a shady 287(g) law that allows local officials to enforce federal immigration laws.  A tip of the hat to the Fayetteville Police Department who didn’t sign up to participate in 287(g), but the sheriffs’ departments of Washington and Benton Counties and the cities of Springdale and Rogers drank the kool-aid.  287(g) was supposed to be used to track serious criminals and gangs.  Instead it is turning out to be an instrument for mere oppression.     

Maria worked cleaning rooms at a local motel chain.  The local officers started investigating these heinous women who are “cleaning rooms without papers.”  They got her.  She was working under her own name and Social Security Number, but her work permit had expired.  Turn her over to ICE.  Prison for her.  So what if the kids have no mother and get returned to the abusive spouse.  So what if she can’t pay thousands of dollars in legal fees and bond money now that she’s unemployed from her low-wage cleaning job.  And since she can’t afford an attorney, it’s most likely she’ll be deported.  We can all breathe safely now that a terrible criminal has been taken off the streets and out of the cleaning force.

I say “we think” Immigration got their tip from the locals because it all exists under a dark shadow of silence and unaccountability.  Maria won’t show up in any reports because she wasn’t charged with a criminal count.  Being undocumented is only a civil charge.  But she can be arrested, detained, held for weeks without notice, and shipped to the Oakdale, Louisiana immigration prison for processing where she can languish for up to a year before deportation.  No criminal charges.  No right of court-provided counsel.  No statistics; no reports.  All quiet and under the radar of public accountability.  Can this be constitutional?

Our friends at Catholic Charities are hearing new stories every week.  People guilty of “driving while brown” or “working with accent” get questioned by a local police officer.  Lucky day for this officer; here’s one who doesn’t have an ID.  Run ‘em in.  The next thing they know, they’re in our little version of the gulag. 

Catholic Charities director Frank Head asks, “Did we not learn our lesson at Abu Graib?  When you give unlimited powers to individuals over a group of people defined ahead of time as ‘illegal,’ you are guaranteed to end up with abuse.”

This is ugly and un-American.  The whole immigration system is broken and unjust.  It needs reforming, not enforcing.  Good people and kids are suffering oppression and injustice.  This is the politics of Pharaoh, not the politics of America.  And it is demonstrably violating the Word of God.