Since taking office, the new administration has pursued an “America First” agenda by dismantling the United States’ foreign aid agency, halting the refugee resettlement program, suspending asylum processing at the southern border, canceling all government contracts with refugee resettlement organizations, rescinding work authorizations for law-abiding asylum-seekers, revoking protected status for multiple vulnerable immigrant groups, denying unaccompanied children access to immigration lawyers, and deporting thousands of migrants – including some with active asylum cases. As Vice President J.D. Vance argued, “you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that, you can focus [on] and prioritize the rest of the world” – that is, the U.S. can only care for its own citizens through restrictive immigration policies.
Yet welcoming immigrants is much more advantageous for the U.S. economy and culture than “America First” perspectives suggest. In fact, from entrepreneurs to farmworkers, immigrants help the U.S. economy grow. Even refugees, who initially rely on state and federal government programs, pay an average of $21,000 more per person in taxes than they receive in benefits over a 20-year period. [1]
![Immigrants pay billions in taxes, create jobs, and support major U.S. industries [2, 3, 4]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8b028_eb55c9ed2289424f892457be1e4e9afc~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1024,h_768,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/e8b028_eb55c9ed2289424f892457be1e4e9afc~mv2.png)
In cultural terms, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born men – despite the administration’s claims that U.S. citizens are endangered by migrants. [5] And immigrant residents have revitalized communities across the U.S., such as Lewiston, Maine, which was transformed from a declining postindustrial town to a growing, diverse municipality after Somali refugees arrived. As one pastor wrote, “Now, ten years later, people clearly see that the Somali migration has revitalized the city and saved them from certain bankruptcy when the housing bubble burst in 2008. Also, a vast number of the Somalis have become Christians, but the churches that protested the arrival of this migration had no Somali converts. However, the few churches that assisted them are now bursting at the seams with Somali Christians.” [6]
Like the welcoming churches of Lewiston, churches attended by immigrants continue to grow even in an era of decreasing numbers across denominations.
![Immigrants contribute to church growth in the U.S. [7, 8, 9]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e8b028_87c4fd0d5b034ee9acd987da49ec710f~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1024,h_768,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/e8b028_87c4fd0d5b034ee9acd987da49ec710f~mv2.png)
While celebrating church growth in the U.S., we must also remember that one in seven Christians around the world today face persecution for their faith. Historically, the U.S. refugee resettlement and asylum processes have offered hope. But with these processes currently frozen, our doors are effectively closed to Christians and all others fleeing persecution. [10]
Contrary to “America First” rhetoric, immigration is good for the U.S. in both economic and cultural terms. But would it be right for followers of Jesus to embrace restrictive immigration policies even if immigration were not so broadly advantageous for this country? The parable of the Good Samaritan offers a different way. The merciful Samaritan is not motivated by kinship ties – the injured man is both ethnically and religiously different. The Samaritan is not driven by profit – the injured man has been robbed penniless, yet the Samaritan takes on debt to ensure the man is cared for. The Samaritan does not demand that the man attempt to help himself first – after all, the man has been left “half dead.”
The “America First” attitude is grounded in fear: fear that the U.S. will not have enough; fear that others might take advantage of our country. But such attitudes are not new. In the fourth century, John Chrysostom, bishop of Antioch, lamented that many in his congregations were suspicious and resentful of poor migrants, describing them as “fugitives…, strangers, worthless creatures, who have left their native land and are gathering in our city.” His challenge to them – “[Y]ou ought to exult and rejoice, that to you, as if to some common market, they all run, and consider this city their common mother” – is one we can adopt today. [11] We can use the facts about immigration to exhort our leaders to reverse policies that scapegoat immigrants and bar them from the U.S., and celebrate our country’s abundance in ways that serve both the native-born and newcomers seeking to build lives here. [12]
How might America flourish if we followers of Jesus rejected fear and truly pursued neighbor-love?
Amber is 2nd generation Puerto Rican, raised in California & Arizona, & has called North Carolina home for the last twenty years. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Duke University & has worked in higher education & refugee resettlement. An independent writer, Amber also serves as a deaconess at The Summit Church in downtown Durham, NC and is passionate about helping Christians grow in their understanding of biblical justice. Find her on Substack at https://amberdiazpearson.substack.com/.
Footnotes:
[1] William N. Evans and Daniel Fitzgerald, “The Economic and Social Outcomes of Refugees in the United States: Evidence from the ACS” (Working Paper 23498, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017), 6-7, https://www.nber.org/papers/w23498. For more analysis of the positive economic impact of refugees, see Robin Ghertner et al., “The Fiscal Impact of Refugees and Asylees Over 15 Years: Over $123 Billion in Net Benefit from 2005 to 2019” (Issue Brief, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024), https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/3dd52e6be9abfa2b7462be0fb3a9c81f/aspe-brief-refugee-fiscal-impact-study.pdf.
[2] American Immigration Council, “Map the Impact: Immigrants in the United States,” 2023, https://map.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/locations/national/.
[3] Stuart Anderson, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs Bring Jobs And Innovation, New Research Shows,” Forbes, May 23, 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2024/05/23/immigrant-entrepreneurs-bring-jobs-and-innovation-new-research-shows/. At the other end of the wage scale, there is no evidence to suggest that lower-skilled immigrant workers take away jobs or depress wages for native-born workers. See Michael Clemens, “There’s no evidence that immigrants hurt any American workers,” Vox, August 3, 2017, https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/6/23/15855342/immigrants-wages-trump-economics-mariel-boatlift-hispanic-cuban.
[4] Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, “Farm Labor,” January 8, 2025, citing data from the U.S. Department of Labor National Agricultural Workers Survey, 2022, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor#legalstatus.
[5] Ran Abramitzky et al., “Law-Abiding Immigrants: The Incarceration Gap Between Immigrants and the US-born, 1870–2020” (Working Paper 31440, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2023), 1, https://www.nber.org/papers/w31440. For additional statistics, including state-level findings from Texas showing that undocumented immigrants were 50% less likely to be arrested for violent crimes and 26% less likely to be convicted of homicide than the U.S.-born, see American Immigration Council, “Debunking the Myth of Immigrants and Crime,” October 2024, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/debunking_the_myth_of_immigrants_and_crime.pdf.
[6] Joey R. Peyton, “Considering a Biblical Mandate for Providing Holistic Pastoral Care to Diaspora Populations,” Global Missiology 1, no. 15 (2017): 5, http://ojs.globalmissiology.org/index.php/english/article/view/2028.
[7] Scott Thumma, “Twenty Years of Congregational Change: The 2020 Faith Communities Today Overview” (Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 2021), 22, https://faithcommunitiestoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Faith-Communities-Today-2020-Summary-Report.pdf. Scholars have also pointed to growing numbers of mission churches planted in the U.S. by immigrants, some of which are sponsored by denominations based in Africa. See Edward E. Curtis IV and Sylvester A. Johnson, “The Transnational and Diasporic Future of African American Religions in the United States,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 87, no. 2 (2019), https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article-abstract/87/2/333/5437664?redirectedFrom=fulltext.
[8] Lifeway Recursos, “Informe del Estudio de las Iglesias Hispanas en los Estados Unidos 2024,” 2024, 11, https://recursos.lifeway.com/recursosencuesta2024.
[9] Pew Research Center, Religious Landscape Study, “Racial and ethnic composition among evangelical Protestants,” 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/evangelical-protestant/.
[10] For an overview of previous U.S. policy on protecting those fleeing religious persecution, see United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), “Factsheet: Overview of Refugees Fleeing Religious Persecution Globally,” May 2022, https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/2022%20Factsheet%20-%20Refugees%20Fleeing%20Religious%20Persecution%20Globally.pdf. See also “USCIRF Urges Resumption of Lautenberg-Specter Program” (Press Release, USCIRF, February 20, 2025), https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-urges-resumption-lautenberg-specter-program.
[11] John Chrysostom, Sermon on Alms, trans. Margaret Sherwood (New York School of Philanthropy, 1917), 22, https://books.google.com/books?id=5YgsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q&f=false.
[12] Despite a slight decrease in real GDP during the first quarter of 2025, the U.S. is still the wealthiest country in the world, with an economy more than 50% larger than that of China, its closest competitor. See Aaron O’Neill, “Countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) 2024,” Statista, February 12, 2025, https://www.statista.com/statistics/268173/countries-with-the-largest-gross-domestic-product-gdp/.
