CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Americans are anxiously watching the nation’s borders as Title 42, the emergency public health order that allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19, ended on the midnight of May 11. “The border is not open,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “Starting [now], people who arrive at the border without using a lawful pathway will be presumed ineligible for asylum.” He added, “We have 24,000 Border Patrol Agents and Officers at the Southwest Border and have surged thousands of troops and contractors, and over a thousand asylum officers to help enforce our laws.” Despite these promises, many are unconvinced that the Biden administration will fulfill these guarantees.
Judge Phil Ginn, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.staging.ses.edu), commented on the potential border crisis, highlighting how important it is for America to protect its borders.
“Our first and foremost task as Christ followers is the proclamation of the Gospel,” said Ginn. “At the same time, it is difficult for the Gospel to find good soil when there is a physical need such as sickness, death, and even oppression and victimization. However, while we ought to always hold fast to our first calling of the Gospel, we need to also remember that we are living in America where the government supposedly derives its authority from those who are governed as opposed to those who would seek to rule over us.
“In his first letter to the church at Thessalonica (1 Thess. 5:21), Paul admonishes all believers to ‘test everything and hold fast what is good.’ Those words are not only for Christians, but their call to action is exactly what every good American citizen should be about as well. Ultimately, we as Christ followers and as good citizens ought to stop being so gullible and cease to be taken in by every smooth-talking politician that comes along. I will hasten to point out the obvious here in that this particular species of animal is by no means risking extinction in either political party.”
Ginn continued, “In order to better understand this dichotomy, let me point you to a recent example of this phenomenon from this past week. President Biden’s administration is launching a new public messaging campaign warning would-be migrants that ‘immigration laws are tougher’ in the United States. The problem, of course, is that anyone with even half a brain would see the fallacy of the pronouncement because at the same time the grandiose statements are being made, hordes of illegal aliens are being released unchecked into our nation in areas ill equipped to handle the onslaught.
“First off, let’s recognize it for what it is. Our nation’s leaders are not being truthful, and they are opening a pandora’s box that we will never be able to close. If our borders are not secure, then we have no way of knowing who is crossing and what their intentions may be once they arrive. What we do know is that in the unchecked masses are terrorists, gang members, despicable human traffickers, and other criminals of all sorts and stripes and that they are being scattered unfettered into our communities. Further, it is clear that many of these migrants are children, both male and female, who are destined for child labor and sex trafficking from which they will never recover. Casting aside whether or not we should allow this mass of humanity into our country, to not properly screen them for criminality, terrorism and transmittable sicknesses is a direct assault on the American public, and by allowing these folks to flood into our nation we are literally promoting the abuse of precious children under some tepid falsified claims of protection that never occurs. The problem is even exacerbated by the thousands of law abiding, hardworking individuals who followed the rules and many of whom who have become productive citizens by doing things the right and honest way and whose national experience is now tainted by the emasculated efforts of our federal government in this regard.
“History tells us that every tribe of people who have resided in what we now call the United States have migrated from another geographical area. Even those folks we call Native Americans likely arrived from somewhere else. We at Southern Evangelical Seminary know from the creation account found in Genesis that the only true natives were our first parents, Adam, and Eve. Every people group who derived their lineage from these first inhabitants at some point became migrants. Therefore, please understand I am not promoting closed borders, only secured ones. We as a nation must know who is coming into our country, and we must allow them in only under orderly circumstances. If we fail in this endeavor, it will mean the end of our nation as we know it because our infrastructure will be destroyed. In the meantime, countless innocent lives will be unnecessarily destroyed by our pitiful actions, or the lack thereof. When the day comes for America to be judged by Almighty God, I fear we will be found wanting. Though it may not be too late to turn the ship, the sands of the hourglass are sifting quickly.”
