The Senate has shown bipartisanship is possible. Immigration reform should be next.
Recently, President Biden hosted lawmakers at the White House to mark the passage of a historic gun safety law. The legislation is notable not because it is comprehensive, but because it actually passed the U.S. Senate in a bipartisan vote, breaking decades of stagnation on a polarized political topic. As a North Carolina Baptist pastor, I’m thankful that both of my state’s U.S. Senators, Thom Tillis and Richard Burr, were a part of this consensus-building effort — and I’m praying they’ll now take up another long-gridlocked policy issue: immigration.
I believe it is possible to craft an immigration policy that conforms with the biblical values that guide me and most North Carolinians. Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly and clearly affirms his particular concern for those who are vulnerable — including, specifically, orphans, widows, and immigrants. God loves them, and he commands his people to love and protect them.
This mandate is why so many churches like mine are actively involved in ministry with immigrants, in partnership with ministries like World Relief.
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But while the Bible gives Christians a clear mandate to show compassion, it also commands Christians to respect the law. Romans 13 makes clear that God has ordained civil government to maintain order and establish justice. To be fully consistent with what the Bible teaches, Christians need an approach to immigration policy that involves both compassion and the honor of law.
That means we cannot ignore the chaos at our borders. U.S. law both prohibits unauthorized entry into the country and invites those who profess to fear persecution to request asylum. The disorder at our border in recent months demonstrates the urgent need for policy changes to keep out those who would seek to do harm, ensure due process for those fleeing persecution and treat all people humanely, as individuals made in God’s image. The Bipartisan Border Solutions Act is a positive step.
But that bill is unlikely to pass unless paired with a few other elements. The Dream Act would address the situation of undocumented immigrants who arrived as children. It does not make sense to penalize individuals who came when they were too young to have consciously chosen to violate immigration law, nor to keep them from lawfully working, using their God-given talents to help meet dire labor needs in our state’s economy.
Lastly, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act would address our country’s urgent need for a reliable agricultural workforce at a time when labor shortages are fueling inflation of food costs. It’s past time to affirm the dignity of the laborers who actually feed us, roughly 70 percent of whom are undocumented immigrants. This bill, which allows these immigrant workers to earn permanent legal status if they pay a fine as restitution for their violation of law, is both compassionate and honoring of the law.
There are other reforms needed to comprehensively fix our dysfunctional immigration system. But I prefer a narrow package of bills with broad public support that actually becomes law to a comprehensive proposal that cannot pass. And indeed, these three policy priorities — improvements to border security, a path to citizenship for Dreamers, and reforms to ensure a legal, reliable agricultural workforce — are supported by about four-in-five voters, including 82 percent of evangelical Christians.
This week’s bipartisanship on gun policy is a reminder that our leaders can make progress on vital issues when they have the courage to cooperate and the wisdom to focus their negotiations. My prayer is that our U.S. senators will now similarly start solving the long-standing challenges of immigration policy in ways consistent with the biblical values that guide my life and the lives of many Americans.
Lawrence Yoo is the lead pastor of Waypoint Church, a Southern Baptist church that meets in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
