10 Passages from Scripture that Challenge American Immigration Crackdown

As immigration enforcement grows harsher, ripping apart families, detaining children, and sowing fear in immigrant communities, I can’t help but feel disturbed by the silence, or worse, the complicity, of some Evangelical Christians in America. It’s hard not to notice the performative displays: hands raised in worship at the White House, prayer circles around the President, declarations of divine favor. But where is that same passion when real people are suffering? When families are being separated or deported?

Where is the weeping for the stranger? The outcry for the widow and orphan? The so-called defenders of morality have become far too comfortable cozying up to power. It makes you wonder: who exactly are they worshipping? Because if their God is love, justice, and mercy, then why the silence in the face of such cruelty?

The Bible isn’t vague about how we are to treat the foreigner, the marginalized, the oppressed. It's clear. Over and over again, the command is to welcome, protect, and love the stranger, not criminalize them. If you claim to be Christian but stay silent or justify policies that harm, exclude, or dehumanize, then it’s worth asking whether your faith is rooted in the gospel—or in the love of power.

Here are just a few reminders pulled directly from scripture. Not from pundits or political platforms, but from the book you claim to follow. Read them. Let them sit with you. And then ask: where do you stand?

Ten Passages from Scripture on Immigration

“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.”
Exodus 23:9

“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:19

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.
Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in 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 foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”
Psalm 146:9

“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.
Do not plot evil against each other.’”
Zechariah 7:9–10

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Matthew 5:43–44

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
Matthew 25:35

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’;
and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Luke 10:27

“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers,
for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison,
and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”
Hebrews 13:1–3