immigration

Students across the country cut class on Friday and Monday to encourage Congress to “stop funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”

The walkouts, which led to school closures in several states, follow weeks of turmoil in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where clashes between ICE agents and well-organized protestors led to the tragic deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Teachers and administrators joined the students’ protests in places like Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott vowed to investigate Austin Independent School District (AISD) for misuse of taxpayer funds.

“AISD gets taxpayer dollars to teach subjects required by the state, not help students skip school to protest,” Abbott wrote on X.

“Our schools are for educating children, not political indoctrination.”

In this case, political indoctrination is only part of the problem. Parents should take great issue with teachers or administrators encouraging their children to engage in what could well be construed as performative activism.

Performative activists generally care more about connecting themselves to a social movement than causing actual change. People usually engage in performative activism to:

• Fit in with a group.
• Gain social capital.
• Feel as though they contributed to a social good.

Most students probably wouldn’t call the walkouts performative. Many likely believe ICE agents in Minnesota have violated people’s rights and that protesting — as teachers, celebrities and politicians frequently claim — will stop those violations.

In reality, the walkouts blocked roads and disrupted instruction time. As for defunding ICE, Congress already funded the department through 2029 via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

At most, the walkouts could cause Congress to stall funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE. Importantly, DHS also oversees agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which aids Americans affected by natural disasters.

Unintended or harmful consequences like these often follow performative activists because they prioritize appearing to solve social problems over the solutions themselves.

For the same reason, performative activism inevitably reduces complex issues like immigration and border enforcement to catchy slogans and clumsy narratives — language which looks good on protest signs and plays well on social media.

The goal is generally to give activists an easy, feel-good cause to support, not facilitate a substantive discussion.

The student walkouts clearly identify ICE agents as the bad guys. Participants do not have to think through the economic and social importance of enforcing national borders.

They do not have to hold the actions of ICE agents in tension with the consequences of incentivizing illegal immigration, like corporations paying illegal migrants below average wages.

They do not have to consider the connection between illegal immigration and drug cartels, which profit from every person who crosses the southern border illegally.

They do not have to grapple with the fact that unaccompanied migrant children are among the most harmed by a porous border.

Understanding and engaging with nuance is a critical part of analyzing complex social and political issues. It’s also an essential feature of biblical justice, which emphasizes impartiality and proportional punishment.

In Exodus 23, God lays out several rules for adjudicating disputes, warning the Israelites against showing partiality, accepting bribes, bearing false witness or bringing false charges against another.

Many of the same themes carry through Leviticus. Leviticus 19:15 commands, “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”

Leviticus 24:19-20 establishes the expectation that wrongdoers receive punishments according to the severity of the crime committed.

These passages portray delivering justice as a sober process requiring careful investigation, righteousness (Psalm 106:3) and knowledge of the Lord (Proverbs 28:5). Accordingly, no one can advocate for biblical justice without considering nuance.

It is parents’ — not teachers’ — job to teach children to seek and love biblical justice. But parents should not have to worry teachers will encourage students to engage in a form of activism which recklessly prioritizes the self over biblical justice.

Additional Articles and Resources

Tulsi Gabbard, Federal Officials Celebrate Breakup of Infant Trafficking Ring and Other Victories Over Human Trafficking

Border Crackdown Discourages ‘Fraudulent Families,’ Child Trafficking

American immigration System Loses Contact with Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children

Trump Sees Lowest Border Numbers in History: ‘The Invasion is Over’

Violent Gang Takes Advantage of American Immigration Policy

Politics is Putting Children at Risk on the Southern Border

Trump’s Border Czar Explains Child Trafficking Under Biden Administration

It’s Compassionate to Oppose Illegal immigration. Here’s Why.

Talking to Your Kids About Illegal Immigration

Four Ways to Protect Your Kids From Assassination Culture

My Rescue From Human Trafficking to New Life in Christ

Identifying the Signs of Human Trafficking

Americans can be forgiven for being at once exhausted, outraged and heartbroken over the ongoing dysfunction in Minneapolis.

The deaths of two activists – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – have poured metaphorical gas on a cultural firestorm that didn’t start in the Twin Cities but instead can be traced back to an evolving acceptance of lawlessness with very tragic consequences.

According to both the Pew Research Center and the Department of Homeland Security, well over 11 million individuals were illegally residing in the United States as of 2022. Many have suggested that number is now exponentially higher after years of a porous Southern Border.

Illegal immigration has been an ongoing concern for the past century, though some decades have been far more problematic than others. Prior to the 1970s, and 80s, it’s estimated America absorbed between 500,000 and one million illegal entries per decade. That jumped to 2.5 million in the 1970s and 3.5 million in the 1980s.

On July 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan sparked great debate when he declared, “Illegal immigrants in considerable numbers have become productive members of our society and are a basic part of our work force. Those who have established equities in the United States should be recognized and accorded legal status. At the same time, in so doing, we must not encourage illegal immigration.”

The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) granted amnesty to more than three million people.

Politicians have been trying to thread the proverbial needle ever since, though some more than others. In recent weeks, it’s been noted that President Obama’s administration was responsible for deporting more than three million illegal aliens – but a closer examination of that number indicates such a statistic is deceiving. As it was, approximately two-thirds of those “deportations” happened right at the border. Basically, individuals who attempted to cross and who were denied entry, were then counted as having been deported.

Each time President Trump has run for office, he has campaigned on securing the Southern Border and prioritizing the deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal records. Polling has suggested a majority of voters support this position.

The Trump administration’s launch in December of “Operation Metro Surge” – a campaign spearheaded by both U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers and Border Patrol Agents in the Twin Cities – has been met with fierce resistance. “Sanctuary-style” policies have led to city officials largely not cooperating with federal officials. A well-organized network of protestors soon descended on the city. Fox News has reported that a “hub of communist and socialist nonprofit organizations working as key organizers of the resistance campaign against federal immigration enforcement” are on the ground.

Heartbreak over the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both caught on multiple cameras, understandably triggered calls for investigations – which are ongoing. In fairness to those examinations, it seems somewhat reckless and irresponsible to draw any conclusions – although that hasn’t stopped many others from speaking out and doing so.

A video has emerged of Alex Pretti seeming to spit on officers, cursing at them, and kicking out the taillight of a federal vehicle over a week before he was shot and killed. At that time, officers wrestled him to the ground but soon let him go. He can be seen carrying a gun, for which we later learned he had a permit.

What if federal officers had arrested Alex Pretti for his assault on their vehicle? Would he have been back that next week? Might he still be alive today?

As Christians, we know that God’s Word is clear regarding the consequences of sin and not following laws. Adhering to civil authority is necessary to avoid chaos. This is why the apostle Paul wrote, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1-2).

We can ask what might have been had the law been enforced with Alex Pretti that first time – but what if our borders had been protected years earlier? What if the very illegal actors that ICE and our Border Patrol are attempting to arrest had never been allowed in at all? There would been no need for “Operation Metro Surge.”

We pray for the ongoing investigations, for the safety of law enforcement officers, for the peace of Minnesota, and for all those embroiled in this difficult and tragic situation.

Photo from Getty Images.