Unjust Laws

            “We have to enforce the laws, don’t we,” asked my friend gravely.

            I gazed at him through the rising coffee steam, considering his rhetorical question. We were discussing conditions at our southern border. We frequently meet at a local coffee establishment to solve world problems. On this day, we tackled illegal immigration. Like most, we’d seen the horrific photograph of a drowned father and daughter and were saddened. But beyond that our responses diverged. My friend framed the problem as one of rule of law. These people were trying to come across the border without proper documentation. That made them lawbreakers, and as lawbreakers, they represented an assault on the rule of law. The laws were on our books and as a civilized nation, one which protected its borders, we needed to enforce the laws as written. But does having a law on the books justify enforcement?

            What if the law is capricious, or unjust? May we simply say that “It’s the law. We’re only enforcing the law. And, we must enforce the law until we change or remove it.” My inner vision returns to the photograph of the bodies floating in the Rio Grande. Yes, it is true that the father chose poorly. He placed himself and his child at risk, paying a dear price for his choice. But, do we not share in the culpability? We knowingly set the conditions for such a choice. By refusing entry for those willing to await a decision of asylum, we increased his desperation. By adopting a policy of strict enforcement of familial separation, we pushed a man and his child into the desert margins. Yes, he bears the burden of his poorly considered decision; but, do we bear the burden of an ill-conceived law and draconian policy. We create our laws and develop policy for their enforcement. Must we enforce laws that lead to such tragedy? Are those that break the law always on the side of chaos and disorder?

            Many of our national heroes were lawbreakers, challenging what they perceived as unjust laws. We hold them up as men and women of great character, encouraging our youth to embrace such clear sight and boldness. George Washington, John Adams, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., the Bus Riders, Cesar Chavez, and many others all ignored established laws in order to create a better future and improve our nation. And such heroes are not limited to our nation. The human story is rich with individuals that ignored, or challenged, unjust laws. We hold Mahatma Gandhi, Moses, Malala Yousafszi, and Jesus in special reverence for their willingness to challenge unjust laws. The Lord, no lover of chaos or disorder, speaks harshly about unjust laws.

            In Isaiah 10:1-4, the Lord, through His prophet warns “those who decree iniquitous decrees…,” about coming judgment for making and enforcing abusive laws. He makes a similar complaint in Jeremiah 5:27-29, again warning of impending punishment. Several hundred years later Jesus takes up the same refrain in Matthew 23:1-36. In this rather famous passage, often referred to as the seven woes, Jesus inserts a particularly pertinent passage, “²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.” And these are just a handful of the passages in which the Lord takes up the cause of the widow, orphan, poor, and sojourner. I do not believe that we can hide behind the fig-leaf of, “We’re just enforcing the law,” or “If we don’t enforce the law there will be chaos.” In James 2:13 we read these sobering words, “¹³ For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” We should not enforce such iniquitous laws and ought to remove them from our books.

            The laws and policies as written and enforced stain our nation, revealing our inherent selfishness and churlish attitude toward the impoverished sojourner. Images like the one of the poor father and child ought to shame us into action. We ought to clamor for change. We may still need to send some of those that appear on our shores back, but I doubt that’s the case. Recent studies show that we need to increase the numbers of immigrants we let into our nation. We need an infusion of those willing to take those entry-level jobs that our society depends upon but would rather not do; however, that is a subject for another essay. The issue we face is an unjust law.

When we write laws or develop and enforce policies, that add to human suffering we must address the situation. It does no good to say, “We’re simply enforcing the law.” If a law or policy results in rending families asunder, when they are at their most vulnerable, we must change that law. And until we do so, not enforce that unjust law. Our laws must not add to human suffering. Fathers and mothers make the difficult decision to uproot their families, undertake an arduous trek with very little in the way of resources, crossing a desert, in order to hopefully obtain a greater measure of security and hope for the future. We must not increase their misery through ill-conceived policies that separate them at their most vulnerable. If we do decide that feeding our military-industrial-complex is more important than expanding the frontiers of human freedom and turn them back, we must do so with as much humanity as possible. We must provide those whose appeals for mercy we reject decent housing and appropriate food and necessary healthcare. Our humanity demands such treatment. The time for handwringing past long ago.

Now we must raise the clarion call to write the wrong and provide redress for the suffering cast upon our shores. The numbers of those seeking shelter and entry has steadily dropped since the year 2000. We do not face a crisis of chaos on our border. We face a crisis of our own moral failure. We’ve turned a blind eye to suffering and let crass politicians use these people as political sound bites in order to energize their base. These sojourners pose no threat, existential or otherwise. While we should exert an appropriate control over our borders, we must not create a situation which leads to needless tragedies. We extol and embrace higher ideals, ones that welcome the sojourner. No matter the law they broke in trying to come, no one should end up face down on the muddy bank of the nation they were trying to reach. It’s just not right and it’s not who we are.