{"id":2488066,"date":"2025-09-18T08:45:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/yes-you-can-love-your-neighbor-and-oppose-illegal-immigration\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:48:12","slug":"yes-you-can-love-your-neighbor-and-oppose-illegal-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/yes-you-can-love-your-neighbor-and-oppose-illegal-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, You Can Love Your Neighbor And Oppose Illegal Immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fyes-you-can-love-your-neighbor-and-oppose-illegal-immigration%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2488066&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The immigration debate in the U.S.is often framed as a conflict between multiculturalist liberals and conservative critics.While liberals argue that Christian values demand open borders and compassion for immigrants, this view is questioned by some who suggest that truly loving one&#8217;s neighbor might mean helping people succeed in their home countries rather than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-in-2019-we-should-surge-to-the-border-people-seeking-asylum\/\" title=\"Biden in 2019: We should \u2018surge to the border\u2019 ... seeking asylum\">encouraging mass immigration<\/a>. Permissive immigration policies, some argue, result in a &#8220;brain drain&#8221; from struggling nations, were the most capable citizens leave, undermining the potential for reform and growth in those countries.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the distinction between neighborliness and citizenship is emphasized. While migrants deserve dignity and aid, they remain citizens of other nations, and citizenship-rooted in a nation&#8217;s culture and laws-should be respected. Prioritizing aid and obligations according to proximity, as suggested by the concept of *ordo amoris* (order of charity), means tending first to family, community, and fellow citizens before extending resources internationally.<\/p>\n<p>Discouraging illegal immigration can therefore be seen as an act of neighborliness that supports both American communities and foreign nations by encouraging migrants to fulfill their civic duties at home. Critics argue this approach protects unique American identity and helps avoid social and economic tensions caused by unregulated immigration. The article concludes that maintaining borders and encouraging responsible citizenship globally can benefit all involved.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The immigration debate in America is typically presented by the left as a battle between foreigner-loving, multiculturalist liberals on one side and mean-spirited, hypocritical, and backwards conservatives on the other.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Although the president and his administration portray themselves as heroes to Christians, their immigration crackdown is sending many into hiding,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/top-stories\/latest\/trump-immigration-crackdown-christians-rcna226410\">declared an Aug. 21 op-ed at MSNBC<\/a>. &ldquo;Christian immigrants helped elect Trump, now some are at risk of being deported&rdquo; read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/04\/11\/nx-s1-5345876\/christian-immigrants-helped-elect-trump-now-some-are-at-risk-of-being-deported\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">title of an April report<\/a> at National Public Radio.<\/p>\n<p>Yet as much as many liberals pontificate about how Christianity demands open borders to accommodate poor and needy strangers (&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you know Jesus was an &lsquo;illegal&rsquo; immigrant?!&rdquo;), is it really accurate that loving one&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >neighbor demands <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/customs-and-border-protection-to-host-unconscious-bias-seminar-during-immigration-crisis\/\" title=\"Customs and Border Protection To Host \u2018Unconscious Bias\u2019 Seminar During Immigration Crisis\">liberal immigration policies<\/a><\/a>? What if to truly love one&rsquo;s neighbor means not welcoming in millions of immigrants from other countries, but giving them the opportunity to do good in their country of origin, while we Americans love the millions of neighbors long neglected by decades of &ldquo;post-national&rdquo; policies?<\/p>\n<h2>What Liberal Immigration Policies Mean For Other Countries<\/h2>\n<p>When liberals talk about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-tragesser-alternatives-to-immigration-detention-are-deeply-flawed-and-poorly-timed\/\" title=\"Exclusive--Tragesser: Alternatives to Immigration Detention Are Deeply Flawed and Poorly Timed\">permissive immigration policies<\/a> that allow millions of people to enter our country illegally, they often focus on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/interactive\/2025\/haitian-family-springfield-ohio-trump-immigration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">success stories<\/a> of humble, hard-working, and intelligent migrants eager to start a new life in the land of opportunity. No doubt, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epi.org\/publication\/unauthorized-immigrants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">there are many such persons<\/a> in the United States. Indeed, likely a significant percentage of illegal immigrants are probably comparatively smarter and more industrious than many citizens in their nations of origin. Many of them made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iom.int\/news\/us-mexico-border-worlds-deadliest-migration-land-route\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">harrowing and costly journeys<\/a> in order to ultimately sneak across our borders in hope of a better life.<\/p>\n<p>But that&rsquo;s a problem. What happens when the most hardworking and entrepreneurial people in an already dysfunctional country depart? None of the countries these people are coming from are thriving models of functional republican government or capitalist ingenuity. No, these are corrupt, impoverished nations defined by criminality and violence and an entrenched exploitative elite class that makes our woke technocrats look tame by comparison.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Before coming to our countries, migrants themselves actively participated in the life of the country that they left, where, according to their age, they received a more or less complete education, a more or less complete human formation,&rdquo; writes French political philosopher Pierre Manent in his book <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.staugustine.net\/9781587317064\/the-religion-of-humanity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Religion of Humanity: The Illusion of Our Times<\/a><\/em>. Undoubtedly, as much as self-important D.C. foreign policy wonks think they will be the saviors of the developing world, it will not be them who solve these countries&rsquo; problems. No, it will be these countries&rsquo; own citizens &mdash; and it must be their best and brightest, those most capable of revitalizing civil society, those most willing to protest and combat authoritarian regimes. All <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ice-arrests-fell-from-5119-to-just-1970-in-february\/\" title=\"ICE Arrests Fell From 5,119 To Just 1,970 In February\">open borders policies<\/a> do is expedite the &ldquo;brain drain&rdquo; of the competent and courageous from such nations.<\/p>\n<h2>Neighborliness and Citizenship Are Not The Same Thing<\/h2>\n<p>There is also a difference between neighbors and fellow citizens. It&rsquo;s true, there is a sense in which illegal immigrants are the &ldquo;neighbors&rdquo; of those whose country they enter. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and our consciences should compel us to have sympathy for those in need. The Good Samaritan parable is a study in unexpected neighborliness. But that is not the same thing as sharing citizenship. Manent explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Taking into account the diversity of political, social, and religious regimes, it is clear &mdash; we&rsquo;ve had the sad proof &mdash; that this formation can have inculcated rules of conduct, and dispositions, incompatible with our principles of justice and with the civic friendships in which we wish to live. The humanitarian view can only see in migrants fellow human beings, while they are also different citizens. If it is an obligation to assist them when they are in danger, this obligation does not include making them fellow citizens.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In other words, those who enter our country are <em>legally <\/em>citizens of other countries. And that citizenship is not simply an empty designation that should be taken off or put on haphazardly or capriciously. These persons were granted citizenship of their home countries precisely because they were born there and were bequeathed the unique culture and mores of those nations. We should respect the citizenship of these persons, and encourage them to realize that citizenship by becoming model citizens of their native lands. (They have also implicitly demonstrated they may not be particularly model citizens of our land, given they broke our laws in order to come here.)<\/p>\n<h2>The Neighbors Who Need American Assistance The Most Are Our Fellow Citizens<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, there is also an argument to be made that the neighbors most in need of our assistance are those closest to us. Vice President J.D. Vance explained this concept earlier this year in appealing to the <em>ordo amoris<\/em>, or &ldquo;order of charity,&rdquo; which is the idea that our obligations and loves exist in a sort of series of concentric circles.<em>&nbsp;<\/em>&ldquo;You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world,&rdquo; Vance declared.<\/p>\n<p>As much as that comment was pilloried not only in the press, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncregister.com\/cna\/pope-francis-vance-clash-over-ordo-amoris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">confusedly by Catholic religious leaders<\/a>, that concept can be found in the writings of Augustine in the <em>City of God<\/em> and Thomas Aquinas in the <em>Summa Theologiae<\/em>, both ancient and venerated Christian texts, as The Federalist&rsquo;s own <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/02\/04\/why-its-absolutely-christian-to-swiftly-deport-all-illegal-migrants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Daniel Davidson has explained<\/a>. &ldquo;We ought in preference to bestow on each one such benefits as pertain to the matter in which, speaking simply, he is most closely connected with us,&rdquo; writes Aquinas. Thus we should prioritize the needs of those we are most obligated to, whether our family, friends, or fellow citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, this has been misinterpreted by Vance&rsquo;s critics to suggest that the <em>ordo amoris<\/em> effectively means we are not obligated to help those in need if they are sufficiently distanced from us. But that couldn&rsquo;t be further from the truth. Rather, the<em> ordo amoris<\/em> is common sense we all practice in our own lives: you don&rsquo;t regularly check in on random mothers to see how they&rsquo;re doing; you call <em>your <\/em>mother. You don&rsquo;t pay for your neighbor&rsquo;s kid&rsquo;s extracurricular activities; you pay for <em>your <\/em>kids&rsquo; activities. By extension, the various needs of those in our community, state, and nation should take precedence over the needs of people outside those spheres.<\/p>\n<p>Thus it is possible to both love our neighbor and maintain strong borders. Indeed, discouraging people from illegally entering our country can even be a manifestation of neighborliness by helping people of other nations do good for their native lands. Manent writes: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no contradiction between the command to give assistance and the existence of borders. Borders are the condition of existence of a political association capable of assisting.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>By discouraging illegal immigration and encouraging people to fulfill their civic obligations in their own countries, we can improve both our nations and theirs. When we do otherwise, our policies have served to harm our fellow citizens, who are forced to compete with illegal migrants in communities that increasingly seem foreign to them, where the sense of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/15\/the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-time-wasting-race-focused-task-forces\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">what constitutes a unique American identity<\/a> is <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/09\/us-news\/michigan-police-department-faces-swift-backlash-over-proposed-arabic-language-badge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">obscured and eroded<\/a>. And it has enabled the continued dysfunction of other parts of the world.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Casey Chalk is a senior contributor at The Federalist and an editor and columnist at The New Oxford Review. He has a bachelor&rsquo;s in history and master&rsquo;s in teaching from the University of Virginia and a master&rsquo;s in theology from Christendom College. He is the author of The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Immigration debate framed as liberals vs. conservatives clash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":658,"featured_media":2488067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4059183926_6273537397_k-e1757771404657.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[5985,33009,3813,7150,15166],"class_list":["post-2488066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-community","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-immigration","tag-love","tag-neighbor"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4059183926_6273537397_k-e1757771404657.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2488066"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2488070,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488066\/revisions\/2488070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2488067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2488066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2488066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2488066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}