The stories we tell ourselves form the world we think we live in. Among the myths that have been told and retold across generations, “the threat at the border” has reemerged to prominence. Higher walls, heavier patrolling, more detention facilities, faster deportations – all in the name of protecting people from the threat beyond the borders. Hateful and derogatory rhetoric, which describes migrants as murderers and invaders that are dangerous, impure, and destructive, is not only tolerated, but sometimes praised [1].
Such regression to a hostile view of migrants has fuelled the series of executive orders signed over the past weeks, diminishing migrants by silencing their voices, disregarding their experiences, and constructing narratives that besmirch and denigrate. This reinforces the ethos and system that disempower these people, rendering them powerless [7]. Much of their power has been forcibly removed at the border, as they were relegated to a status where their legality (and thus future) was determined by the authorities, who decide which loved ones to separate or reunite, which protection claimants to admit or deport, and which migrants to release or detain. The contrast between the disposability of people exhibited at the borders and the care and protection of God for the strangers is stark and apparent, urging us to act in restorative ways that address the harm done to our neighbors.
The acknowledgment of the humanity of migrants is urgently necessary. The portrayal of migrants by some media outlets and politicians are attempts at dehumanizing, reducing, and nullifying them to an object (instead of somebody) that has no name, no body, and no experience, as if their existence depends solely on the judgment of those in power. The recognition of the humanity of migrants has to be intentional, where we notice that they bear the imago Dei as persons who yearn for loving relationships.
Migrants are not only people whom we talk about, but people whom we encounter. When some try to persuade us into distancing ourselves from our neighbors, and ignoring their needs and dreams, we shall be reminded of our call to welcome the stranger. This warm embrace requires no less than recognition that embodying Christ compels one to attend to the stranger.
Jesus teaches us to serve the least of us who are members of God’s family. One crucial way of doing so is to welcome strangers [8]. In the name of protection, migrants have been harmed by having their children separated from their families, being detained in atrocious conditions, and experiencing deportation to perilous places. A reckoning has dawned that urges us to reposition ourselves with the migrants in our midst: God continues to shelter and protect migrants in the face of fear and terror, calling us to be in solidarity with them in the here and now.
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Footnotes:
[1] For a brief analysis of the political rhetoric used by Donald Trump against migrants, see Amanda Terkel and Megan Lebowitz, “From ‘Rapists’ to ‘Eating the Pets’: Trump Has Long Used Degrading Language Toward Immigrants,” NBC News, September 19, 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-degrading-language-immigrants-rcna171120.
[2] Psalm 146:9.
[3] See F. Brown, S. Driver, and C. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2021), 158.
[4] For a brief official history tracing some of the notable events and policies made in relation to admission of refugees to the United States of America, see U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “Refugee Timeline: Immigration and Naturalization Service Refugee Law and Policy Timeline, 1891-2003,” last reviewed/ updated January 24, 2025, https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/our-history/stories-from-the-archives/refugee-timeline#:~:text=The%201967%20United%20Nations%20High,1%2C%201968.
[5] For the 1980 Refugee Act, see US Congress, House, S.643 – 96th Congress (1979-1980): A Bill to Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to Revise the Procedures for the Admission of Refugees, to Amend the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 to Establish a More Uniform Basis for the Provision of Assistance to Refugees, and for Other Purposes. March 17, 1980. https://www.congress.gov/bill/96th-congress/senate-bill/643.
[6] See The White House, 2025, Presidential Action, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/realigning-the-united-states-refugee-admissions-program/.
[7] For a discussion of “powerlessness” and “disempowerment,” see Chris Ng Tsz Nok, “Support for and Empowerment of Refugees,” Hong Kong Refugee Ministry Group, February 25, 2022, https://www.rmghk.org/copy-of-our-stories. The article was originally published in Chinese in 吳旨諾 Ng Tsz Nok, “對難民的支援及賦權 Support for and Empowerment of Refugees,” Christian Times (Hong Kong), February 25, 2022, https://christiantimes.org.hk/Common/Reader/News/ShowNews.jsp?Nid=168056&Pid=2&Version=1800&Cid=588&Charset=big5_hkscs.
[8] Matthew 25:31-46.
About the top image: Children ran towards land before waves crash in on the world’s longest strand in Cox’s Bazar at sunset. This photo is dedicated to the many who are in a refugee camp just miles away from the beach but never get to see a sunset on the sand, that one day they will. (May 27, 2018, Sugondha Beach, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh) by Ng Tsz Nok Christopher.
