Everyone quotes the Bible on immigration. Almost nobody reads it carefully.
The left quotes “welcome the stranger” and stops there. The right quotes “obey the law” and stops there. Both are correct, but they’re incomplete. And both are doing something the Bible explicitly condemns: using Scripture as a weapon instead of letting it be a mirror.
So let’s do something unusual. Let’s read the whole thing.
The “Welcome the Stranger” Case
If you’ve spent any time in progressive Christian spaces, you’ve heard these verses. They’re powerful, and they’re real.
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)
That’s not a suggestion. It’s a command from God, grounded in Israel’s own identity. You were strangers once. Don’t forget it.
“For the LORD your God… loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)
God doesn’t just command His people to love the foreigner — He says He Himself loves the foreigner. This is a statement about the character of God. He feeds them. He clothes them. And He expects His people to do the same.
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35)
Jesus identifies Himself with the stranger. When you welcome the displaced, the displaced turns out to be Christ. When you turn the stranger away, you turn Christ away. This is not a metaphor Jesus uses lightly. He stakes the final judgment on it.
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2)
The case is strong. God commands care for the foreigner. Jesus identifies with the foreigner. The law protects the foreigner. This is a consistent, emphatic thread running from Genesis to Hebrews.
If this is where you stop reading, you’ll conclude the Bible teaches something like open borders. But you shouldn’t stop reading.
The “Rule of Law” Case
The other side has Scripture too, and it’s not just proof-texting.
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1)
Paul wrote this under Nero — the emperor who would eventually execute him. Not a friendly government. Not a democratic one. Not a government that respected human rights. And Paul still said governing authorities have a legitimate role in ordering society. Law is not opposed to God’s purposes — it is, when rightly applied, an instrument of them.
“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” (Acts 17:26)
Paul, speaking in Athens, says God established nations and their boundaries. This is not a proof-text for any particular immigration policy. But it does affirm that nations, borders, and political structures exist within God’s providential order. They’re not accidents. They’re not inherently evil. They are part of how God governs a fallen world.
And here’s a distinction that most people on both sides miss entirely.
The Hebrew Words That Change Everything
The Hebrew Bible uses different words for different kinds of foreigners.
The ger (often translated “stranger” or “sojourner”) was a resident alien who lived within Israel and submitted to its laws, customs, and social order. The ger participated in Israel’s festivals, observed its Sabbaths, and was expected to respect its covenant framework. This is the person Leviticus 19 protects.
The nekhar (often translated “foreigner”) was someone passing through or residing temporarily without such obligations. The nekhar did not submit to Israel’s legal framework and did not receive the same protections.
This distinction matters enormously. When the Bible says “love the stranger,” it’s talking about the ger — someone who has entered the community and accepted its terms. The biblical command to welcome is inseparable from the expectation of mutual obligation.
This does not mean the nekhar is treated with cruelty. But it does mean the Bible’s vision of immigration is not borderless hospitality with zero expectations. It’s a structured relationship with rights and responsibilities on both sides.
The case for lawful order is also strong. God instituted nations. God ordained governing authority. And the biblical category of the “stranger” assumes a legal framework within which the stranger operates.
For a deeper dive into the ger/nekhar distinction and its implications for immigration ethics, see James K. Hoffmeier’s The Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible — one of the most thorough scholarly treatments of the biblical categories for foreigners and what they mean for modern immigration debate.
Where Both Sides Go Wrong
Here’s where it gets uncomfortable for everyone.
The Left’s Error
Progressive Christians quote Leviticus 19 but ignore the ger/nekhar distinction. They treat “welcome the stranger” as an absolute command with no conditions, as though the biblical vision is unrestricted movement with no regard for law, sovereignty, or social order.
It isn’t. The same Torah that commands love for the ger also establishes laws that the ger was expected to follow. Compassion in the Bible is never lawless. It operates within a framework of justice. Reducing immigration to a compassion contest — whoever feels the most empathy wins — is not biblical. It’s sentimental.
But there’s a deeper problem. Many who quote Leviticus 19 on immigration disregard the same Bible on everything else — its sexual ethic, its definition of marriage, its understanding of the sanctity of life. You cannot invoke God’s authority on the one issue where it aligns with your politics and dismiss it everywhere else. That’s not biblical conviction. That’s selective rhetoric. If the Bible is authoritative on how we treat the stranger, it’s authoritative on everything. You don’t get to cherry-pick which commands of God you find convenient.
The Right’s Error
Conservative Christians quote Romans 13 but forget that the governing authorities Paul describes are supposed to be “God’s servant for your good” (Romans 13:4). When government becomes unjust, the prophets have a different word for it. The same Bible that commands submission to authority also contains Exodus, where God tears apart an unjust government to liberate an oppressed people.
More fundamentally, the right tends to reduce immigrants to a legal category — “illegal” — and stop thinking. But every person crossing a border is made in the image of God. Their legal status is a relevant fact. It is not the only fact. When your framework for thinking about immigration produces zero compassion for the human being in front of you, your framework is broken. Romans 13 does not cancel out Matthew 25.
The Core Problem
Neither side wrestles with the tension. They pick the verses that align with their politics and build a theology around their party platform. This is not exegesis. It’s proof-texting with a voter registration card.
The Bible is not a policy document. It doesn’t endorse a specific immigration system. What it does is establish principles — and those principles cut against every political tribe.
The Bridge: Micah 6:8
There’s one verse that holds the whole thing together.
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
Three things. Justice. Mercy. Humility. Not justice or mercy. Not justice without humility. All three, held together, in tension, always.
Justice
Justice means accountability. It means that laws exist for reasons, that borders serve legitimate purposes, that fraud is wrong regardless of who commits it, and that institutions must function with integrity.
The $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud in Minnesota — where more than 50 defendants pleaded guilty to stealing federal funds meant to feed children — is a justice issue. Federal prosecutors allege that half or more of roughly $18 billion in funds supporting 14 Minnesota programs since 2018 may have been stolen. That is staggering. And accountability for it is not racism. It’s justice. And necessary.
Enforcing immigration law is not inherently unjust. A nation that cannot enforce its own laws will not survive — and the vulnerable will suffer most when systems collapse. And enemies that are held at bay by our national strength will not be kind in our national weakness.
Justice demands order.
Mercy
Mercy means seeing the human being. Not the legal category. Not the statistic. The person.
In fiscal year 2025, approximately 340,000 people were deported from the United States — 25% more than the previous year. ICE detention numbers rose from 40,000 in January 2025 to 66,000 by December — the highest level ever recorded. More than 1.6 million immigrants lost their legal status in the administration’s first eleven months. ICE has been staking out immigration courthouses and arresting people at their scheduled appointments. Over 225 judges have ruled the mandatory detention policy likely unlawful in more than 700 cases.
Behind every one of those numbers is a person. A mother. A father. A child who doesn’t understand why their parent isn’t coming home. Every deportee bears the image of God. Every child separated from a parent is someone Christ died for. You can believe in border enforcement and still grieve the human cost. If you can’t, something in your theology has gone cold.
Mercy demands that we see the face, not just the file. Enforcement proceedings should be conducted with dignity — not because every person in the system deserves leniency, but because of who we are. A nation shaped by the Christian tradition does not answer evil for evil. Whether the person across the table is a mother with no criminal record or a gang member with a violent past, the proceedings should be conducted in righteousness. Not because they’ve earned our respect, but because our character is not contingent on theirs.
Humility
This is the one nobody wants.
Humility means admitting that this is genuinely hard. That good Christians disagree. That your political party does not have God’s endorsement. That the person on the other side of the debate might be reading their Bible faithfully and reaching a different conclusion — not because they’re stupid or unfaithful, but because the tension in Scripture is real.
But real tension does not mean the Bible is silent. God breathed those words for a reason, and the reason is discernible. This is why the church exists — to do the hard work of reading, wrestling, and applying Scripture to the world as it actually is. Not to flatten the tension into a slogan, but to hold it with the seriousness it deserves.
Humility means holding your immigration opinion with an open hand. Your theology with a closed one.
God is sovereign over nations. Christ identifies with the stranger. The law has legitimate authority. Mercy has non-negotiable demands. If you’ve resolved all of that into a clean political position, you’ve probably stopped listening to half of Scripture.
The Current Situation
The facts, without spin:
- Approximately 340,000 deportations in FY2025. ICE hired 12,000 new officers and agents — a 120% increase. Projections for 2026 range from 310,000 to 510,000 deportations.
- 66,000 people are currently in ICE detention, the highest number ever recorded.
- More than 1.6 million immigrants lost legal status in the first eleven months of the current administration.
- TPS (Temporary Protected Status) was terminated for Venezuela and shortened for Haiti.
- Over 225 federal judges have ruled the mandatory detention policy likely unlawful in more than 700 cases. The 5th Circuit upheld it. The legal battle continues.
- The administration is seeking to restrict birthright citizenship; the Supreme Court is set to hear the case.
- Federal courts have blocked courthouse arrests and fast-track deportation policies. Other courts have upheld them. The legal landscape is fractured.
- Since January 2025, DHS reports over 180 vehicular attacks against federal immigration officers — a 3,200% increase over the prior year period. ICE agents have been doxxed on Telegram and a whistleblower-sourced website, with 4,500 agents’ personal information leaked.
- In the same period, at least 30 shootings by immigration agents have resulted in 8 deaths, including two U.S. citizens — Renée Good and Alex Pretti — killed by federal agents during the Minneapolis Operation Metro Surge in January 2026. Multiple video recordings contradicted official DHS accounts of both incidents. Over 225 federal judges have ruled elements of the enforcement regime likely unlawful.
The violence cuts both ways. Agents are being rammed. Civilians are being shot. Both facts are true. Neither cancels the other.
I’m not going to tell you what to think about these policies. That’s not my job. My job is to tell you what God says — and what God says is that every one of those 66,000 people in detention is made in His image, and every law on the books exists under His authority.
Both things. Simultaneously. That’s the biblical position, and it’s more uncomfortable than either party platform.
What Christians Should Do
Stop Using the Bible as a Political Cudgel
If your first instinct when immigration comes up is to grab a verse that supports your position, you’re doing it wrong. Scripture is meant to challenge you, not confirm you. If the Bible never makes you uncomfortable about your own politics, you’re not reading it — you’re using it.
Hold Justice and Mercy Together
This is what God does. The cross is the supreme demonstration: perfect justice (sin must be paid for) and perfect mercy (God pays for it Himself) held together in a single act. If God can hold justice and mercy together, so can you.
Demand lawful immigration systems. And abide by the rulings of those in authority over you. And demand that those systems treat every human being with dignity. These are not competing values. They are both biblical requirements.
Care for the Immigrant You Actually Meet
Matthew 25 is about personal action. Jesus didn’t say, “I was a stranger and you drafted a comprehensive immigration reform bill.” He said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Do you know any immigrants? In your neighborhood, your church, your workplace? Are you welcoming them? Helping them? Seeing them? The easiest way to avoid the tension of immigration ethics is to keep it abstract. The hardest — and most Christlike — thing is to love the actual person in front of you.
Advocate for Just Laws and Humane Enforcement
You can demand both. You should demand both. A system that has no enforcement is not just. A system that has no mercy is not humane. But ICE agents are not Nazis. Christians should be the people in the room who refuse the false choice — who insist that a nation can be both lawful and compassionate, because God is both lawful and compassionate.
Jesus said it plainly: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep” (John 10:1-2). The metaphor is about Christ, but the principle reverberates: the way you enter matters. The door exists for a reason. The one who goes through it has a right to be there. The one who climbs the wall does not — and lives with the consequences.
My mother used to tell me, “Delight yourself in what’s allowed.” There’s wisdom in that for anyone considering their future. Entering a country through the legal door gives you peace — the peace of belonging, of permanence, of building something that cannot be taken from you. Entering illegally means living in the shadow of deportation, and the longer you stay, the more people get caught in that shadow. A spouse. Children. A community. The “kids in cages” rhetoric has two sides: one is the cruelty of enforcement systems, which is real. The other is the cruelty of a decision that put children in that position to begin with. Both deserve honest reckoning, not slogans.
Remember Who You Were
“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:12-13)
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” (Ephesians 2:19)
You were a stranger once. Not to a country — to God. You were outside the covenant. You had no legal standing in the kingdom of heaven. You were an alien, undocumented in the only registry that matters.
And Christ welcomed you.
Not because you earned it. Not because you had the right papers. Not because you deserved it. Because He is merciful. Because He is just. Because He is God, and His grace does not check your status before it saves you.
Both. Always Both.
The Bible doesn’t fit neatly into your political tribe. It never has.
The same God who established nations and borders is the God who told His people to love the foreigner as themselves. The same Jesus who said “render to Caesar” is the Jesus who said “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” The same apostle who wrote “submit to the governing authorities” also wrote “there is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Justice and mercy. Law and love. Order and compassion. Sovereignty and hospitality.
Both. Always both.
The moment you resolve the tension by picking one side, you’ve lost something essential about the character of God. He holds it all together. So should we.
You’re in my prayers.
Sources: DHS: Record-Breaking Year in Immigration Enforcement; NBC News: Immigration Tracker; Migration Policy Institute: New Era of Enforcement; Vera Institute: Weaponizing the System; Brennan Center: Deportation-Industrial Complex; Deportation Data Project; CBS News: Minnesota Fraud Schemes; Wikipedia: List of Shootings by U.S. Immigration Agents; DHS: 180+ Vehicle Attacks; NPR: Videos Refute DHS Account of Minneapolis Shooting; The Trace: ICE Shooting Tracker; CIS: A Biblical Perspective on Immigration Policy; Central Seminary: Biblical Perspectives on Immigration; World Relief: A Biblical Perspective on Immigration; ERLC: A Biblical View of Immigrants; Theology in the Raw: A Christian Response to Undocumented Immigrants
Media Sources: “Nero at the Burning of Rome” (1865) by Hans Makart. Oil on canvas, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
This article is part of our current events coverage. For more on how the Bible speaks to today’s headlines, see our Israel and the Middle East feature.
