Yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to watch the movie, "The Visitor." The movie is about a college professor from Connecticut who recently lost his wife and his reason for living. He is going through the routines of life without really living. When he is forced by the college to go to New York for a conference, his world is rocked and his life is never the same again when he finds an unmarried couple living in his apartment in the city. As the movie progresses, we find out that the couple are actually illegal immigrants who had fled to America to escape oppressive situations and are trying to make a better life here.
This movie really puts a face on the issue of illegal immigration. Here in our area of south Georgia, illegal immigration is a hot topic. We have lots of immigrants from Mexico and Central America who come into our area to work on local farms. While the majority of these are legal immigrants who are in the country on a temporary work visa, quite a few are illegal immigrants drawn to this country by the hopes of making a better life here.
Many people in our community are strongly opposed to the presence of illegal immigrants and those who, often unknowingly, hire them. And, even if employers know they are illegal, a lot of times federal policy does not allow them to fire them. For instance, on my father's farm, he hires immigrants and turns in social security wages to the government as required by law. When social security numbers are reported back as incorrect or invalid, he knows that this individual worker is illegal, but the law says he cannot fire them based on an incorrect or invalid social security number. Some in our community, even in our churches, would like to prosecute my father for hiring illegals even though he is in the position of not being able to fire them once he knows they are illegal.
That is the problem with a lot of policies that originate at the federal level and those that generate such national attention. It may sound good in Washington. It may make a great sound-bite for candidates seeking political office. But once a face is put to the issue, things change and aren't as clear-cut as some would have us believe.
In a church that I used to belong to we had a family of Mexicans, a husband and wife and their three children. They were some of our most dependable church members, hard-working and polite and respectable. They always showed up for service. Their kids were just as polite and would come work at the church after school. They helped take care of elderly home-bound people and mowed the grass and trimmed the bushes and just ministered in that church as one of us. But, they were illegal. They didn't take money from the government, but worked for what they had. But, if they had been found out, they would have been deported. All three of their kids were born in the U.S., but still were not considered U.S. citizens. It's easy to stand up against illegal immigrants and to rail against them as a policy, but it's another thing to look someone in the face, a brother or sister in your church family, and tell them they have to go back to where ever they came from because they are not wanted here.
That is the premise of the movie, "The Visitor." Walter, the professor, befriends the couple and steps in to help when Tariq is arrested as an illegal immigrant. Despite the fact that his father had been imprisoned in Syria for speaking out against the government and his own life and freedom would be suspect if he was sent back, Tariq is deported to Syria despite Walter's efforts. Walter rails at officers at the Detention Center, "This isn't right. He's a good man. He wasn't hurting anyone. He's a good man." For Walter, the anonymity of policy met the face of an individual who happened to be illegal.
This was a good, thought-provoking movie that anyone who is concerned about illegal immigration, on either side, should view. It is a movie that begs the question, "What should be our role as Christians concerning illegal immigration?" Should we advocate immigrant rights to fulfill Christ's call to take care of the alien in our midst, or should we advocate deportation of all illegal immigrants to protect our country? This issue is one which deserves greater attention in the Christian community, and brings us face-to-face with the issue of God's kingdom and being members of God's kingdom versus nationalism masquerading as Christianity.
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