Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer. The Bremer County Independent previously published a version of this commentary.

This is not the column I planned to write. Economics and government tax and spending policy are my primary opinion writing focus, and there’s plenty to talk about. But I’ll get back to that another time. 

I am compelled to write now about immigration and the incoming administration’s plans for mass deportation.

I want to very clearly say that we need to control our southern border. That requires two key sets of policy actions. First, the guidelines and the policies and procedures for administration of applications for amnesty need to be clarified. 

Under both U.S. and international law, a person can request amnesty (seek refuge) in our country if they have suffered or have a well-founded  fear of suffering loss of life or freedom in their home country on account of “race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” Most people crossing our border today request asylum. And most of the recent undocumented immigrants spreading out to the rest of the country, including Iowa, today are being temporarily released because we don’t have the capacity to administer their cases promptly.

Logically, the second policy priority should be increasing the number of immigration judges, administrators, and border enforcement personnel, and giving them the technology and other resources they need to get their work done. Strict and prompt administration of amnesty requests would close the window on the misuse of the amnesty process. That would enable Customs and Border Patrol to focus on the people who are actually trying to sneak into the country undetected. Congress has been aware of the need to update immigration law and chosen to “kick the can down the road” for decades.

Next, we must deal rationally and humanely with undocumented immigrants who are in most cases contributing members of our communities. This includes “Dreamers” (brought to this country as young children by their parents), spouses of citizens, people who overstayed visas, people waiting for rulings on asylum requests, and probably a few who successfully sneaked across the border. We know that in Iowa these folks are part of the immigrant population, which is a very important part of our workforce, particularly in livestock production and processing and construction. 

Indiscriminate mass deportation would tear apart families, businesses, and communities. It would be both irrational and unnecessarily cruel. I’ve heard the argument that we can show no mercy to people who have broken the law. The person who blows past me on the highway like I’m standing still when I’m driving my normal 5 MPH over the speed limit is breaking the law. (Technically, so am I.)

We just elected a president who said of immigrants during this campaign, “they’re not humans – they’re animals,” and “they’re poisoning the blood of our country.” That incendiary and demeaning language recalls Adolf Hitler’s rants against the Jews in Germany during the 1930s. However, that “stuff” is also part of our own country’s history. Congress passed very tight immigration quotas during the early 1920s, primarily to block Jews and Catholics from southern Europe. Representative Albert Johnson, a Republican from Washington, said when introducing that legislation, “The greatest menace to our Republic today is the open door it affords to the ignorant hordes from Eastern and Southern Europe, whose stream of alien blood is poisoning our nation.”

I ask my Christian brothers and sisters, regardless of the denomination of the congregation with which they worship, to consider how their understanding of Jesus’ teaching and example guides their own treatment of our immigrant neighbors. Then ask their elected representatives to enact policies which reflect those values.

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Top image: La Joya, Texax: A Honduran woman who crossed the Rio Grande River illegally to seek asylum holds her daughter while waiting to board a bus to a Border Patrol processing center on November 16, 2021. Photo by Vic Hinterlang, available via Shutterstock.