ICE and illegal immigrants

Despite what we read daily in the news, millions of people long to live and work in the United States, and each year tens of thousands cross our borders illegally with the hope to remain in this country. Immigration Nation probes how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforces the laws of the land, and the results are not pretty.

ICE granted the camera crews of directors Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz behind-the-scenes access to the workdays of officers throughout the country, and may have regretted granting this permission. While some ICE personnel behave honorably and treat illegal aliens with respect, there are many scenes that will make viewers cringe.

A deputy field director in the New York area sets quotas for his teams and takes perverse delight in the roundups of illegal immigrants. The ICE officers on his teams set out to find illegal immigrants who have criminal records but often encounter “collaterals,” other illegal immigrants living with the criminal. The number of these individuals who may be taken in varies based on the changing directives of the field director and those to whom he reports. “I don’t take in collaterals,” states one officer to the film crew riding with him, but minutes later his field director tells him not to return until he has apprehended at least two more people.

From April to June of 2018, ICE separated adults illegally crossing the border from their minor children, and the resulting scenes caught by film crews are heartbreaking. Fathers whose children were removed from them break down in tears as they describe their grief and longing. (Viewers who are skeptical of these stories may view follow-up footage showing joyous reunions of parents and children that make clear that at least these fathers were not fabricating their tales.)

Christians are proponents of law and order, of obeying those in authority over us unless they call us to disobey God. How civil servants implement those orders matters a great deal, and the cavalier, uncaring attitude shown by some government employees in this six-part series is reason for grief and for reform. We have the right and duty to defend our borders and enforce our laws, but we must never forget that all people are created in the image of God and should be treated with respect.