Evaluating the President’s Immigration Policies: Are They Biblical? Are They Constitutional?

The policies President Donald Trump set forth on immigration last week certainly stirred debate across the nation, from riotous protests on college campuses to government leaders strongly stating their opposition or support.

Now, Christians are asking themselves some very important questions—safety or being a good Samaritan? How would Jesus approach the refugee situation the country is facing?

The American Pastors Network  is attempting to explore some of those answers on its nationally syndicated radio program, “Stand in the Gap Today,” heard on 425 stations around the country.

APN President and “Stand in the Gap Today” co-host Sam Rohrer welcomed noted historian and WallBuilders leader David Barton to the program last week, when they discussed the ongoing immigration debate and the biblical and constitutional perspectives therein.

“Immigration in this country is certainly a polarizing issue,” Rohrer said. “But the main questions to explore are these: Are President Trump’s immigration policies in agreement with or in opposition to the historical ideology set in motion by our Founding Fathers? What did our founding fathers envision for the immigrant and how did they perceive this issue? David Barton’s valuable insights and knowledge of the historical and biblical precedent for our laws on immigration helped shed great light on this dilemma. After all, this is an issue that touches every American, with many looking to their pastors and the church for guidance.”

These three questions, and others, were explored on a recent program, with David Barton’s answers following:

Question 1: What did George Washington and our founders think about immigration and controlling it and would they have agreed with the concept of extreme vetting-similar to what President Trump is putting in place?

Answer: “It’s not somebody that just shows up at your border and says, ‘I’m going to live here.’ No, you have to say, ‘I want to live according to your rules. I want to become one of you’ … our immigration (policy) was based on was the biblical concept of ‘come in and be part of us.’” Read more

Question 2: When did the view of immigrants change to bringing in people who don’t ever want to become Americans but actually want to change America?

Answer: “The seeds of that change began in education in the 1920s, as Progressives shifted the way we taught. Prior to that point in time, we taught about individuals. We did not look at groups, we looked at individuals. Every individual had God-given inalienable rights. Every item in the Bill of Rights is given to every individual, it’s not given to groups…” Read more

Question 3: What other characteristics of a nation did our Founders understand and build within the framework of our Constitution?

Answer: “If you look at the Declaration, it starts with 155 words that set forth the entire philosophy of American government in six principles. Of those six principles, four of the six are absolutely God-centered. If you don’t get that right, you don’t get the philosophy of the government right … In America, you’re an American because you adopt a certain philosophy. You can come from any country to be an American if you’ll become part of that philosophy.” Read more