What does it profit a man, or a nation, to secure their borders and lose their soul?

How Donald Trump has changed my mind on immigration policy

— Tom Hoefling, founder and president, U.S. Border Security/Secure Liberty

People generally understand that we must defend our borders if we're to maintain the rule of law, our national sovereignty, and self-governance. And yet, Trump's ham-handed, cruel treatment of real people is quickly building more and more public sympathy for immigrants, whether those immigrants are here legally or not.

“Fellow-feeling...is the most important factor in producing a healthy political and social life. Neither our national nor our local civic life can be what it should be unless it is marked by the fellow-feeling, the mutual kindness, the mutual respect, the sense of common duties and common interests, which arise when men take the trouble to understand one another, and to associate together for a common object.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

The "fellow-feeling" of the American people for what Emma Lazarus once called "the huddled masses, the homeless, and the tempest-tost" is apparently not quite dead yet.

As the scripture says:

"…judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment."

— James 2:13

The Bible, over and over again, calls for compassion, justice, and fair treatment of immigrants. We are instructed to treat sojourners with the same love and respect we would want to ourselves be treated.

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."
— Leviticus 19:33-34

‘Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’”
— Deuteronomy 27:19

“The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.”
— Psalm146:9

“For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.”
— Jeremiah 7:5-7

“You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you as citizens of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.”
— Ezekiel 47:22

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.”
— Zechariah 7:9-10

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
— Matthew 25:35

“Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brethren you did it to me.”
— Matthew 25:40

“Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
— Acts 10:34

“Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.”
— Romans 12:13

“Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
— Hebrews 13:1-2

I know this will surprise some when I say this, but this is exactly how Americans have, by-and-large, always treated immigrants. Sure, there are always pockets of bigotry, but, generally-speaking, our people have been willing to more-or-less roll out a red carpet for newcomers. I’ve seen in with my own eyes, and you won’t convince me otherwise. It’s been the rule in this country, not the exception. Over the course of more than four centuries, we have been a nation of immigrants, a refuge from oppression.

Even our Constitution explicitly requires that ALL PERSONS who are here, citizens or not, legally or not, be protected in their most important legal, human rights.

“No State shall…deprive ANY PERSON of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to ANY PERSON within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

— U.S. Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1

Please forgive me for daring to paraphrase Jesus Himself, but one might justly ask: What does it profit a man, or a nation, to secure their borders and lose their soul?

So much for intellectual, legal, emotional, and scriptural arguments. Let’s talk for a moment about stark, practical reality:

A failed immigration policy - gross nonfeasance committed by both “major” parties for more than half a century - has produced the situation we now find ourselves in. It is what it is. All the wishing in the world - all the manipulative political catch-phrases the political hacks can think up - aren’t going to change it. Many tens of millions of undocumented, i.e. illegal, folks are here in America, and they are deeply embedded into our society and the economy.

To remove so many people, even if it were possible, would require tactics that would utterly change the character and nature of the American republic, and the American people. And, to our disgrace, we have, sadly, been seeing those tactics playing out on our screens in recent days.

In the midst of the chaos he is been creating, even Trump himself is starting to admit to the obvious fact that he can’t even begin to remove them all. His big donors and supporters are already beginning to complain about the drain on their labor pool, and, as of this week, he’s now talking about further capricious, extra-legal exercises of executive fiat to allow many who work in certain industries to stay.

But more executive caprice is NOT what is needed.

What is needed is a new vision, a new national policy, driven by the citizens of this country, via our representatives in Congress (i.e. those who have been granted the constitutional authority to deal with these questions), that takes full account of reality, of the needs of national security, national sovereignty, and the rule of law, but, that is humane and workable.

It’s time to set up a system that sensibly secures the borders, while beginning to thoroughly vet those who are already here. Call it a pathway to citizenship, or amnesty, if you will. I don’t care. The actions - or the inaction - of a whole political generation have left us no other decent, moral, workable path to follow.

For many years, I strongly opposed amnesty, but Trump and his actions have changed my mind. Reality has, shall we say, smacked me hard in the face.

I now recommend that thousands of local citizen panels be set up, legally-empowered not just to vet immigrants carefully, but to follow up and make sure that all promises that are made are kept - that all immigrants be required to act in the long haul in a way that blesses America, not curses it.

Let’s take care of each other, and hold each other accountable. Let’s do it legally, and let’s do it with kindness and mercy, while protecting America. I know that these may be strange concepts to many today, but I see no decent alternative at this point in our nation’s history.

In closing, let me say that my core moral, constitutional, and legal principles have in no way changed on any of these questions. All that has changed is opinion of how we must act based on the societal reality that several generations of political leaders have created.

"Other countries may seek to compete with us; but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on earth comes close. This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America's greatness."

• — Ronald Reagan