Immigration update

In last Sunday's discussion of the illegal immigration situation in WorldMovers, we agreed that it ought to be reasonable for a strong national government to come up with a rational "guest worker" policy that would effectively protect national security and the economy without being intrusive to personal freedom and liberty. We also applauded the statements made by some of the presidential candidates in last Saturday's debate about what to do about solving the problem of the millions of undocumented immigrants who have already been living here for many years.

This week the Supreme Court agreed to hear the federal case agains the state of Arizona's S.B. 1070,which requires law enforcement officers to inquire as to the legal status of possible lawbreakers, including traffic laws. You can read World's update about this case here.

Unfortunately, the outcome of this case will not really "solve" the present crisis. It is essentially an argument over jurisdictions. Can individual states create laws about immigration, or is that exclusively a federal prerogrative?  Either outcome has the potential to uphold the status quo, which is already very ineffective. 

Fortunately, we can pray. When we pray about these issues in WorldMovers, here are some of the petitions we make:

1)  that individual Christians and churches would have compassion on the "strangers in the land" (Leviticus 19:34 and Deuteronomy 10:19)
2)  that God would give us wise and just leaders (Proverbs 8:15)
3)  that God will grant us peace within our borders (Psalms 147:14)
4)  that God will deliver us from our enemies (Psalm 18:3).