Showing God's Love to People in Need

In the journal entry Raid Leaves Families Fractured, by Bruce Finley, it talks about the damaging results that occur after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement conduct a raid. This particular story tells how the raids affected Isabel Ramirez and her family. The ICE detained Isabel Ramirez’s husband, Juan, leaving her with their eighteen-month-old daughter, Brenda, their three-year-old son Juanito, and their seven-year-old daughter, Laura. “He was the only one working. He paid for everything, the bills, rent.” Along with the financial crises, which the broken families now have to deal with, there is also a lot of shame involved. The Ramirez family was not the only family affected in that area, though. As if this financial crisis is not enough to process, “the raids left more than one hundred children with no parents present” according to the church officials and community organizers. The financial crisis, shame, and orphaned children are all effects of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, whose goal is to find and deport illegal immigrants living in America. This leaves the families and communities broken and unable to support themselves.
In Matthew 25, it tells us that we are to take care of those in need. This past year in my Spanish class, we went on a field trip about immigration. We spent a great deal of time in a church that has set up an outreach to help illegal immigrants get American citizenship and to help those who do have citizenship get and keep jobs. After talking to a family who came over illegally, I acquired a great deal of sympathy for Mexicans here in America. The “hoops” that the U.S. government makes Mexicans go through in order to become American citizens is outrageous. Although I do not think that it is right to go against the law generally, there are times that it is necessary to do so. God’s law trumps man’s law. In the Bible God requires us to fulfill his law by meeting the needs of those less fortunate. Mexicans who manage to come to America are humans just like all those who were fortunate enough to be born in the States. We need to be careful to treat everyone just as we would want to be treated. I feel it is my duty to love and do what I can for those around me.
The effects of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, to find illegal immigrants in America, leave the families and communities devastated. What a perfect opportunity to help people in need. We need to be ready to let Christ live through our actions.