The Top 3 False Narratives about Immigration

Too many Christians are believing false narratives about immigration in America. Bri Stensrud, director of Women of Welcome, brings us the facts about open borders, fentanyl smuggling, and crime, gleaned over many years of working in the immigration space. Her biblical perspective helps us approach these sensitive topics not from a place of fear, but from a place of nuance, compassion and advocacy for all affected. (From Holy Post Podcast 663: Snow White, Scarcity, & Why Immigration is Pro-Life and Bri Stensrud)

Kaitlyn:  What are the things that keep coming up as misconceptions that people have about immigration? 

Bri: I think the number one misconception people have is that the most loving thing that we could propose for our immigrant neighbors would be to have open borders. That is absolutely not what anybody with any credibility or experience in the immigration space is proposing. 

And it is such a relief for people to hear that that's not actually what anybody is saying. I've actually never had that conversation in the seven years of having conversations in this space on Capitol Hill with both the Biden administration and the Trump administration, and with advocates on the right and the left. 

That has never, in any closed doors, meetings, or open door conferences, ever been a point of discussion or something that anybody even proposes. Like, “Hey, you know, the most loving thing that we could do for those migrating to the U.S. is just to open up all the borders.” No one's having that conversation. So, if you hear someone say that to you, just note that it is a completely false narrative to make you afraid because it's actually not reasonable or responsible to have open borders. 

Walls make sense where they make sense. The same is true of doors. So, if the Border Patrol wants a wall, give them a wall. If they want more technology or ground sensors or staff, give them what they feel like they need, right? No one is proposing that. We are proposing safe and secure borders, thorough vetting and the humane treatment of people who we know as Christians are made in the image and likeness of God.

And so, if we work towards solutions that have those three kinds of outcomes, that would make for a more secure nation. And it's not just about security for Americans, it's about security for those who are fleeing valid concerns of persecution. A third of the refugees that we allowed to resettle in the US last year were Christians that have fled and met a legal definition of what it means to be persecuted.

I think just this idea that, “We gotta fling open the borders in order to be compassionate, loving,” is the first misconception.

I think the other thing is that there are a lot of fear narratives about migrants being only consumers, and that they want to take advantage of American taxpayers and they want to take advantage of everything that the US has to offer.

It doesn't seem to matter how many economists from Wall Street Journal or whatever the most conservative research outlets are continuing to say that immigrants and refugees alike, undocumented and documented, contribute to the economy in the billions, more than they actually consume from the economy. 

Matthew Sorens always has this thing when he and I do trips together. He'll say, “You know, we don't do a cost analysis. We do a cost-benefit analysis.” And we say, “All right, what are the costs, but what are the benefits?” And knowing that people are made in the image of God, what we have to realize about that is what does it mean to be made in the image of God? 

What it means is that people aren't just mouths to feed. They’re hands and they’re feet, and they're creators, and they're contributors. They are made in this way, in the likeness of God, where they're going to cultivate, they're going to create, they're going to contribute. And we don't have just the data to back that up. We have scripture to back that up. 

I think open borders, I think only consumers and takers that are looking to overwhelm and just only take are huge misconceptions. And then I think crime is another really huge one that people are very afraid of. And you think about drugs, and you think about gangs.

Gangs are a big conversation right now. I think you go back to the facts when you meet a man where he is and in his frustration, and he says, my brother died of the fentanyl crisis. My friend was, you know, fill in the blank. There's a million stories, but when you reassure people, “Hey, just so you know, 90% of fentanyl is actually smuggled through legal ports of entry on the backs of white males on the average age of 34.” 

And so, it's actually Americans who are funneling this through our own ports of entry because they don't get screened and scrutinized as much as migrants do. Also, there is a deep well of corruption and a lack of oversight when it comes to customs agents at legal ports of entry. And so it makes no sense to put drugs on the backs of migrants who are turning themselves into Border Patrol or who are likely getting apprehended because our apprehension rates are so high. It makes no sense to put millions and millions of dollars of your industry on the backs of migrants who are turning themselves in to be searched and vetted by the most powerful government in the world. So when you start to dispassionately talk about fact, but also just real life stories, and you marry that with what the Bible says is true of human beings, you do see a relief in the shoulders, and you see a relief in the mind and the heart. 

There are things to be afraid of for sure, but there is also a deep well of conviction and nuance that allows you to be a part of a conversation that is helpful and that is kind, it's not naive. 

There's this huge movement about how empathy is toxic, and you're being emotionally manipulated because you care about vulnerable people. You are being Christlike when you are having compassion, and if Christ's compassion was toxic, where would we all be? I say to women a lot, “If Christ’s welcome towards us cost him everything and cost him his life, and we are to go and be like him, what makes us think that our welcome towards others wouldn't cost us the same?” And that's not meant to make you afraid. It's meant to make you deeply question the curated comfort that you have surrounded yourself with, and is it really, truly about Christ and his mission, or is it about your comfort in your own community, in your self-preservation. Those are some of the main things that you have to meet people where they're at and say, “What is true?” 

Laken Riley situations happen. They're very rare, but they do happen, and it makes no sense to quote a bunch of stats at somebody who is afraid of a Laken Riley situation. It would be insincere of me to say to Laken Riley's parents, “Well, you know what? Foreign-born citizens, documented or undocumented, actually commit drastically lower levels of violent crime than native born citizens, about 60% lower. That does nothing for them. Their daughter is gone and a community is reeling.

So you have to say that that's wrong and never should have happened, and that person never should have been allowed in the country. It is up to us to make a system that thinks critically about crime but also humanity.

So, I have to grieve with Laken Riley's folks and her community and say that it never should have happened. The system is broken. I don't throw stats at them. Even though I know the stats are on my side, that's not helpful. It's about discernment too, about where the discipleship moment is when you are meeting people who have deep and actually valid concerns, and then how do you alleviate the fear of what feels very extreme and very personal.