I really have a lot of mixed feelings about this issue. First, I don't agree that people should enter the US illegally. But if I and my family were living in terror and intense poverty, I would probably get my family to a safer place, even if it meant illegally. I have that responsibility to my family. Many of the people coming to the US are in exactly that kind of circumstances. And some of them are in that kind of circumstances because of US drug abuse, which has led to the drug-lords and their control of various areas in their countries. We as a country are responsible in part for their desperation situation.
Second, the comparison to the US and Israel and the stranger in the land is apples and oranges. People travelled into Israel from other countries all the time. They didn't try to keep them out, as far as I can tell from the Scriptures. Instead, they assimilated them into Judaism. The idolatry of their original countries was resisted, sometimes with force. We don't do that, because of our system of freedom of religion, which I agree with. But where we Christians are missing the boat is our lack of urgency of lovingly witnessing to them about Jesus, our Savior.
On Nov. 10-12, 2014, I went to the IMB/Send LA People Groups Engagement Conference at Immanuel Church in Highland, CA, and learned a great deal about the multitude of people groups in our country. On Tuesday the 11th, we divided into teams and visited various ethnic locations in Orange County. My team went to a Muslim mosque, a mixed ethnic marketplace (grocery), an Arab restaurant to eat, and a Vietnamese Buddhist temple. We had hour long tours in the mosque and temple. In the mosque, our young woman tour guide answered several questions about the Islamic faith. Of special concern to me was her statements that she hopes her good deeds outweigh her bad deeds, and that no Muslim, including her, knew for certain they would be welcomed into Paradise. She said that even Mohammedan said that he needed forgiveness! They hope, but have no certainty. In my heart, I could feel her lostness! At the temple, we saw the repetitious chanting, bell-ringing, and incense burning, all of them prayers to the Buddha statues around the walls of the temple. They have no assurance of advancement to a higher life form when they die. I felt their lostness.
The illegals will come, no matter what we do, and no matter how illegal it is. It is impossible to stop them, because they are desperate for better lives. Obama, I think, is doing roughly what Reagan did during his presidency (or was his CA governorship?). Our job as Christians is to share Jesus with the persons in our midst, no matter from where they come. God has brought them here, or at least, allowed them to come. He's looking at us to see how we respond to them.
