The Spirit and the Necropolitics of Immigration

Since January 20, 2025, the U.S. immigration system has experienced one of the most significant overhauls in modern history.

Beginning with the inaugural executive orders that closed the borders, attempted to restrict birthright citizenship, and suspended humanitarian aid programs, the changes have continued with the expansion of ICE funding through the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the strategic targeting, detaining and disappearing of undocumented immigrants, and the clash of ICE with civilians in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, and beyond.

For decades, Christian faith leaders have called for comprehensive immigration reform. Instead, the escalating use of force and continual crossing of legal and moral boundaries have given rise to a new social reality to which we all collectively bear witness: the necropolitics of immigration.

What is Necropolitics?

In his book Necropolitics, Cameroonian historian Achille Mbembe coins the term necropolitics to describe what happens when a sovereign uses its power “to dictate who is able to live and who must die.”[1] Through the power of the sovereign state, decisions are made regarding which members of a society are considered valuable and which are deemed disposable. Those who are valued are those who serve the sovereign, aligning themselves with empire and advancing its purposes. Those who stand opposed or whose existence is at odds with the will of the sovereign find themselves at the point of the sword.

Necropolitics, or a politics of death, is often expressed through public policy, resulting in the creation of deathworlds, or “new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to living conditions that confer upon them the status of the living dead.”[2] Within deathworlds, reality is bifurcated and history is partisan. Those who are governed by the “law of equality” are considered fellows, citizens, and valuable. Those who are governed by the “law of inequality” are counted as non-fellows, non-citizens, and the living dead.

Mbembe argues that the law of inequality is founded on the prejudice of race and creates the social conditions for necropolitical power: “to a large extent, racism is the driver of the necropolitical principle insofar as it stands for organized destruction, for a sacrificial economy, the functioning of which requires, on the one hand, a generalized cheapening of the price of life and, on the other, a habituation to loss.”[3] Within the necropolitics of immigration, xenophobia is the bedfellow of racism.

The Necropolitics of Immigration

In the United States today, the necropolitics of immigration can be seen in the closing of legal pathways to residency and citizenship for the most vulnerable. This was demonstrated in the closing of international border to seek asylum, a universal human right,[4] the indefinite suspension of the Refugee Resettlement Program, and the ending of TPS, CHNV parole, and other humanitarian parole programs. The reopening of the Refugee Resettlement Program in late 2025 at a historic low of 7,500 was available only to white South Afrikaners, demonstrating the necropolitical prejudice of race.[5] The revetting of refugees from the “third world” further revealing its xenophobic prejudice.[6]

The creation of deathworlds can be seen in the deportation of non-violent immigrants to a Salvadoran mega-prison,[7] and others sent to third countries they had never visited. It can be seen in the building of alligator Alcatraz and the inhumane and unsanitary conditions of detention centers like it.[8] The creation of deathworlds is seen in the ending of USAID,[9] with projected death tolls estimated in the millions across the globe.

The conferring of the status of the living dead is demonstrated in the separation, detainment, and deportation of family members, in some cases to their certain deaths.[10] It is also seen in the disappearing of individuals from federal records and the ICE detainee locator, leaving family members unable to contact or know the whereabouts of their loved ones.[11] And yet, the boundary of the living dead too was crossed, as 2025 marked the deadliest year in over two decades, with the death of 32 people in ICE custody.[12]

The boundary was crossed once more on January 7, 2026, with the senseless murder of a U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, by an immigration officer.

And again, the boundary was crossed on January 20, 2026 as 5‑year‑old Liam Ramos was used as bait to be detained with his father.[13]

And again, on January 24, 2026, when Alex Pretti was shot dead by an ICE agent in broad daylight.

The Spirit of Life

Where then can we find the goodness of God in the land of the living (Ps. 27:13), when fellow human beings are treated as the living dead?

John’s gospel tells us that, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; [but] I came so that they would have life and have it abundantly.”[14] As family members are abducted from family members, image bearers lose their lives in ICE custody, and the unity of both church and society stand at the brink of collapse, Christ shows us another way.

It is the way of the cross and not the sword, as Christ pursued an ethic of non‑violence in a violent world. It is the way of reunification and not separation, as the gospel reveals the heavenly ethic of a loving Father who designs a pathway to eternal citizenship for His children who lost their way. It is the way of the wanderer and not the settler, who follow the sojourners ethic of the leading of the Spirit toward a Kingdom that is not of this world.

This is the difference between the politics of God and of men. The politics of God breathes life into the necropolitics of our fallen humanity. As followers of the Spirit, we are called to participate in this redemptive work of God. In the words of German theologian Jürgen Moltmann, “God’s Spirit has been called not just the Holy Spirit but the Spirit of life, for the Spirit does not just sanctify, through its divine energies it gives life.”[15] The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life, and the Spirit of life has the capacity to transform deathworlds into lifeworlds once again. This is the way, the truth, and a politic of life.

We have arrived at a defining moment in American history in which we must choose between the politics of life and death. What is needed in this hour is not a necropolitical imagination, but comprehensive immigration reform that honors life, dignity, and the unalienable rights of all people, endowed by our Creator.

Comprehensive immigration reform is the civil rights moment for immigrant communities today. May we be remembered among those who pursued a politic of life over death.