Marlin K. Jensen on immigration

Last week, the Deseret News ran an article that quoted Marlin K. Jensen calling on Utah state legislators to adopt a "spirit of compassion" and a "thoughtful and factual, not to mention humane, approach" in handling bills that seek to penalize undocumented immigrants. I was impressed and heartened. I've been appalled at the surge of anti-immigrant sentiment that seemed to come out of nowhere during the past couple of years. Maybe five years ago, I was participating in rallies calling for Congress to clear a path to citizenship for the undocumented, and there seemed to be a feeling of cautious optimism. The next thing I know, the news media are giving serious attention to people who want to round up the undocumented and ship them back to Mexico in trains. Last year sometime, I was in an airport on layover, and CNN was running the most nakedly partisan coverage of a Congressional immigration bill that I've ever seen (probably since I don't watch Fox). This wasn't Lou Dobbs's editorializing, mind you. It was news reporting, but without so much as a nod to the notion of balanced coverage: they were using bulleted PowerPoint to let viewers know how bad this bill was for being too soft on illegals.

What does this have to do with spirituality? Everything. As Marlin Jensen has reminded the Utah legislature, our compassion and humanity are at stake. Who would Jesus deport? I don't mean to oversimplify a complex issue involving serious social problems. But lawmakers and a hysterical, hostile, xenophobic public need to be brought face-to-face with the individual, human costs of the current anti-immigrant campaigns.

Mormons have special reason to be sympathetic to immigrants. Think of all the migrants in the Book of Mormon. Think of all the migrations that the early Saints were forced to undertake. How many of the Mormons now pushing for anti-immigrant legislation are themselves descended from nineteenth-century converts whose immigration to this country the federal government tried to prevent during its anti-polygamy campaign? How many of the Church's missionaries have been illegal immigrants? I was. My father was. Like every other foreign missionary I served with, I entered the Dominican Republic on a tourist visa and then stayed on long after it expired. When my father's mission to Argentina ended, he turned himself in to the authorities and was deported—that's how it was done. So when I hear right-wing Mormons getting all self-righteously outraged about how undocumented immigrants are breaking the law . . . well, let's not finish that sentence. I'm trying to be less angry these days.

Anyway, kudos to Elder Jensen for speaking out. And kudos to the church leadership more generally for how they're approaching immigration-related issues. When Lou Dobbs fumes at you for "encouraging illegal immigration," you should take that as a sign that you're doing the right thing.

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God of Abraham and Sarah—

The scriptures teach me that age after age, you have been a guide and protector of migrants.
You led the children of Israel out of Egypt.
You led Lehi, Sariah, and their family to the promised land.
You led Mary and Joseph in their journeys.
You led the early Latter-day Saints across oceans and plains.
You watched over my own family as we moved from place to place.
You watched over me while I lived—illegally—in another country.

I pray for the undocumented immigrants I've come to know over the years: people I helped when I was a medical interpreter, people I taught ESL to, people I've worshipped with, people who are now my neighbors.

I pray for a greater spirit of compassion and a humane approach to immigration issues in this country.
I give thanks for Marlin Jensen and other LDS church leaders who are urging compassion and moderation.
I give thanks for the church's initiatives to provide assistance to immigrants in Utah.

In Christ's name, amen.