Illegal immigration is a sensitive issue for many Christian Americans, because we recognize that immigration is important (after all, we are a nation built on immigrants) and we are warm-hearted, generous people, who are told over and over again that enforcing immigration laws is the opposite of generosity, and is, in fact, bigoted and cruel.
What many people fail to see, however, is that in our quest to be kind non-racists toward illegal immigrants, we end up punishing legal immigrants and citizens. For instance, no matter how you feel about Arizona’s much-talked-about new law on immigration, it goes against any idea of compassion or justice to punish the law-abiding business-people and residents of Arizona simply because a new law was enacted that you may not agree with, as the West Hollywood City Council has done. The City Council, along with many other progressive groups, are trying to “boycott” all products, services and tourism coming out of Arizona to voice their opposition to this new law. Just yesterday I heard about a woman who owns a boutique hotel in Phoenix, who has lost $10,000 in one week thanks to this foolish boycott. How is it her fault that this anti-illegal-immigration law has been passed? She will undoubtedly have to lay off staff and cut expenses if this continues… doesn’t that hurt the very people that we are misguidedly trying to help in this boycott?
In an effort to buck the trend, many people are rallying to a “buycott” of Arizona, trying to show support for hard-working Americans stuck in a political firestorm, and I think this is a noble cause.
Pulling our dollars out of an already struggling economy won’t help the situation, but talking openly (not rioting or simply yelling about racism) about why we support or oppose this bill might.
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