Deport Underage Illegals? Not Gonna Happen; Step Up, Church!

I’ll admit that I am not the world’s most politically in tune individual. I’ll also admit that I am not a political science expert nor am I a Constitutional expert. I might also mention that I am not completely in the know about our current immigration laws. (Given my political bent most of the immigration laws make no sense to me.) Having said that, I want to jump into the gray wasteland that is our immigration crisis where thousands of minors are streaming over the borders which is not a new phenomenon.

We can debate for hours about what is the right thing to do with these children. (Naturally, our government will debate for months or even years.) We can even be high and mighty about what the law would or wouldn’t say on the issue. Even better than that, we can jump on our high horse of compassion and social justice. Democrats say “do this”; Republicans say “do that”. Congress says “do this” only to be run over by our President who says “do that” (which is another article entirely).

The reality is that these children are NOT going home and everyone knows that. There has been a dramatic decrease in deportations of this nature since our current President took office. “The number of immigrants under 18 who were deported or turned away at ports of entry fell from 8,143 in 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, to 1,669 last year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data released under a Freedom of Information Act request.”*

So what do we plan to do with all these children? My suspicion is that we will do what our government knows and loves the best. We’ll set them up for a lifetime of poverty and laziness through handouts and entitlement programs. My assumption is that these children will get tossed to and fro in whatever foster care system is in place until they age out and become a burden on society. Remember, they’ve been fed a healthy diet of handouts and our beloved social justice programs. Will any of us be shocked by this? No, of course not. Will any of us do anything about it? I pray so.

See, I don’t blame our government for the mess we are in. I blame the church. For that matter, I blame myself as a part of the Christian community. Why is it that the government is always jumping in to rescue those in “need”? Why is it that the government is always offering a new entitlement program? The answer to that is simple. They wish to be God, and the church in America has done nothing to stop them. In fact, the church has willingly and gratefully abdicated its responsibility in more areas that I can count.

Don’t want to educate your own children? No worries, the government will do it for you. Don’t want to take care of your aging parents? Don’t worry, Social Security and Medicare will do that for you. Don’t want to pay for your children to go to college? No problem, just get a government grant or better yet shackle your kids to a government loan instead of securing an inheritance for them. Don’t want to love your neighbor when their house is destroyed by a hurricane or tornado? FEMA to the rescue! Don’t want to feed the poor? No worries, your ever increasing tax obligation will take care of that. Don’t want to care for the orphans? No sweat, the foster care system is efficient and without flaw. Need I go on?

Having said all that, let me ask again, what do we plan to do with all these children who are flooding across our borders for one reason or another? And given that we’ve already established the fact that they’ll be staying (whether they should or not), let’s come together as the Christian church in America and present a solution to keep these children out of the welfare system. If every church in America adopted one or two children, we’d have the situation under control. We can be the ones to show what true generosity and compassion is. We can introduce these children to the land of opportunity and the true American dream by teaching them about hard work and persistence. Let’s not do what we always do this time, which is nothing.

*http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/07/fins-in-water-new-obamacare-warning-signs-emerge/

Image: http://groundreport.com/illegal-immigration-issues-bleeds-into-ongoing-debate-on-defense-authorization-act-2015-in-congress/