In recent years it has been hard to turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper and not encounter something about immigration reform. There has been so much talk about border control, minute-men and immigration reform. All of the facts mixed with opinions and negative sentiments have consequently become popular. But what are the facts? What exactly is happening? There is clearly a serious problem at hand, but what does it all mean?

Since Oct.1, 2006, there have been 222 migrant deaths in the deserts of Arizona, according to www.nomoredeaths.org. Every day there are people risking their lives to attain a higher quality of life, some merely seeking opportunities to make money to support their family in Mexico. But what is happening with these people as changes are made in our laws and to our borders?

The illegal immigrants who have been living here in America are faced with the threat of deportation notices on a daily basis. According to the Sept./Oct. 2006 edition of “Sojourners Magazine,” prior to 1986, when the Immigration Reform and Control Act passed, if an illegal immigrant had a child who was a U.S. citizen, then they had the possibility of gaining legal status in the United States. However, after 1986 this was no longer a plausible cause to begin the legal process. In order for the parent to gain legal status, there needed to be proof of significant hardship that would result from either the child and the parent or just the parent leaving the United States. After 1996, the law was changed yet again, and the hardship exerted on the family to qualify the parent to apply for legal status no longer included merely the removal of the child and/or the parent from the United States. The hardship now needed to be “extreme, exceptional and unusual” in order for the parent to qualify for the process to become legal. Apparently families being indefinitely separated from each other and leaving a child without guardianship is not “extreme, exceptional and unusual,” according to “Sojourners Magazine.”

There are stories upon stories of families torn apart, good people being torn from lives they have built in America. What is the point of this? Why is this happening? “Sojourners Magazine” also mentions the “bar.” Many illegal immigrants living in America find themselves “running into the bar” so to say. The “bar” is a figurative expression to explain that since 1996, if someone has been in the United States for more than a year then they must return to their home country for a decade before returning; in a sense they are “barred” from immigrating.

America, meanwhile, is putting into action by the Border Security and Immigration Reform Agreement border security, worksite enforcement, interior enforcement, assimilation, the streamlining of existing guest-worker programs and the improvement of existing immigration. Concerning Border Security, by Dec. 31, 2008, the United States government will be implementing the following: 18,300 Border Patrol Agents, 370 miles of fencing, 300 miles of vehicle barriers and 105 camera and radar towers. By 2009 they hope to add 1,700 more Border Patrol Agents. (www.whitehouse.gov).

All of this money and effort is being put forth to stop illegal immigrants, to deport them. Our government is even going as far as to make the legal process for becoming a legal immigrant extremely difficult and extremely case specific. Why aren’t we helping them? Why is it that we are pushing them out and refusing them?

Obviously we need to be watching our borders and seriously considering who comes in and who leaves our country. But why do we have to turn those away who are no threat and are in desperate need of help? We were all once immigrants ourselves, in one way or another. Where is our compassion?

While we consider all of these facts occurring every day, it is important to remember that we must filter it all and come to our conclusions through the Bible. Next week, look forward to the second part of this three week series on immigration, which will focus on our stance in the situation as Christians.