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The arrest and despicable treatment of vineyard manager Moises Sotelo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement dishonors a fundamental and most honorable tradition on which this nation was founded. Worse, for me as a Christian minister, it belies the tradition of scripture at the basis of my faith.
In 1654, a group of 23 Jewish immigrants fled the inquisition of their native Portugal for New Amsterdam, what we now call New York. To understand the brutality of the persecution, imagine being burned at the stake, only the way it was implemented by these “Christian” inquisitors was particularly cruel, placing the victim high on a pole so that instead of being burned to death, they were slowly grilled in an extremely painful process that could last up to two hours.
More than 1,100 human beings were executed in this way by the Portguese government from 1540 to 1794.
Among the descendants of those freedom-seeking Portuguese Jews, widely seen as the first of the soon-to-be-thriving Jewish community of New York, was poet Emma Lazarus, who was asked to compose a poem to assist in the fundraising efforts to pay for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. (The statue itself was a gift from the people of France.)
Lazarus, in addition to being a renowned poet of the time, was active in efforts to aid Jews fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe. Falsely blamed for the assassination of the Russian czar in 1881, thousands of Jewish homes and businesses were burned by rioting mobs, and tens of thousands were expelled from their communities, many coming to New York.
Lazarus’ poem, preserved in bronze on that pedestal, alludes to the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Writing in 1883, two years after The New York Times reported on 259 pogroms in Russia, she powerfully captures the American tradition for immigrants seeking the liberty to which the French statue beckons, which she calls “The New Colossus”:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Fittingly, that statue was often the first thing in the United States seen by the refugees arriving at nearby Ellis Island.
How, we should ask, are those “tired poor” being treated in our country today? Sotelo, honored for his exemplary work by the Oregon Wine Board in 2020, has American-born children and grandchildren, is a leader in his church, and is praised by colleagues in the wine industry as an all-around good guy.
He performs very specialized, skilled work essential to the success of the wine industry. Detained on his way to work, he has been moved from one ICE facility to another without notice to his family, who often cannot even find out where he is.
That the treatment of Sotelo and thousands of others like him goes not only against the tradition of our country, but also the tradition of Christian and Jewish faiths, should not need any explanation. Sadly, MAGA followers – who also claim to be Christian – apparently, are ignorant of their own scriptures.
From the Hebrew scriptures, we read, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:34) The Jewish tradition often reminds followers they were once aliens themselves in the land of Egypt and, hence, shall treat resident aliens with kindness and respect.
The Christian tradition teaches that welcoming the stranger is the same as welcoming Jesus.
In The New York Times, Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, calls our treatment of immigrants immoral. “This draconian, heavy-handed, meanspirited way that the country is dealing with immigrants today, it is not fair, it is not humane, it is not moral,” Wester said.
He joined 40 other faith leaders in sending a letter last week to the U.S. Senate, urging members to not approve the reconciliation bill that will further expand ICE’s efforts to deport immigrants seeking to support their families by working in the United States. Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill and Thursday, the House did, too.
Rev. Michael Neuroth, director of the United Church of Christ Office of Public Policy and Advocacy in Washington, D.C., said, “This bill stands in violation of our deeply held Christian values of generosity and hospitality.”
Rev. Kendal L. McBroom, director of Civil and Human Rights, The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, in Burlington, North Carolina, said: “As United Methodists, we believe in the sacred worth of every person and the biblical mandate to welcome the sojourner, care for the poor, and seek justice for the oppressed. The reconciliation bill threatens these core values by prioritizing detention and deportation over human dignity and by slashing essential support for families in need.”
Were the targets of ICE truly the worst of the criminals, as Trump promised in his campaign, it would be understandable. Going after hard-working, tax-paying people like Sotelo, runs counter to both American tradition and the faith on which religious conservatives claim this country was founded.
Instead, they have chosen Trump over scripture, cruelty over love of neighbor and the Colossus (and tyranny) of empire over the New Colossus of Lady Liberty.
Emma Lazarus would be appalled, and so should we be.
Dan Bryant is a retired minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a resident of Eugene since 1991.
