I LIVE in Chula Vista, California, seven miles north of the Mexican border with the United States. From the third floor of my house, I can see the hills of Tijuana to the south, with paths beaten by migrants heading north.
President Trump, since coming into office in January 2025, has initiated a draconian programme for identifying, imprisoning, and deporting undocumented residents, focusing especially on those who came to the US across that border, from Mexico and through Mexico from Central America. Isaac Samuel Villegas, who identifies as Mexican-American, tells his family story and those of migrants crossing the border — migrants who made it and what they faced on the other side, and others who did not, who died in the desert, where crosses are erected to mark their deaths.
Villegas reflects on the biblical and theological implications of immigration policies and their political import. He chronicles also how Roman Catholics, Evangelical and mainline Protestants, and Jews responding to their biblical teachings have responded to the plight of immigrants. It hardly need be said that the deployment of masked ICE agents, heavily armed, to racially profile and attack residents of “Democrat-led” cities is not “what Jesus would do”. And, if there is any doubt about that, the many stories and theological reflections that Villegas includes in this volume make that abundantly clear.
This book is an empirical account of how migrants fare, how they have been dealt with by the US government, and how people of good will have responded. It does not address, and is not meant to address, the vexed question what the consequences of mass immigration are likely to be, in the long and short run. The US has repeatedly experienced mass migration, and, even if there are benefits, there are costs. It won’t do to deny that there are costs, as partisans on the Left, my side, have been inclined to do. The business of policymaking is cost-benefit analysis and making decisions accordingly.
But, arguably, that is not my business as a Christian or yours, unless you are charged with the analysis and implementation of immigration policy. Villegas tells the story, in emotionally compelling detail, of immigrants’ current treatment in the US, where the administration has embarked on a draconian policy of harassment, punishment, and deportation of residents suspected of illegal status. And he describes the efforts of members of every faith community to respond.
Dr Harriet Baber is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego, California, in the United States.
Migrant God: A Christian vision for immigrant justice
Isaac Samuel Villegas
Eerdmans £17.99
978-0-8028-8443-5
Church Times Bookshop £16.19
