As we assess the morality of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security’s “largest immigration enforcement operation ever” in the Twin Cities, let’s recall how the operation began. This operation, that has taken the life of U.S. citizen Renée Nicole Good alongside other aggressive tactics and warrantless home entries, began with an utterance of President Trump regarding refugees from Somali. 

The President of the United States called Somalians “garbage;” people who he doesn’t want in the country. As he said this, Vice President JD Vance “banged the table in encouragement,” the NY Times reported.

This wasn’t a once-off slip of the tongue either (Who would think such an utterance would be?). Trump spoke the same way about Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat Congresswoman from Minnesota, who emigrated from Somalia to the United States as a legal refugee, becoming an American citizen some 25 years ago: “She’s garbage; her friends are garbage,” he said.

The most powerful voice in the world continued his bullying: “We could go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

As one can imagine, the response was swift and startled. Even the New York Times reacted in horror, writing “President Trump has a history of insulting people from African countries, but the outburst was shocking in its unapologetic bigotry.” 

Returning to the current aggressive, violent tactics of ICE and the DHS, opinion surrounding their actions in Minneapolis is split along party lines, with slightly more Americans expressing criticism. Yet one way to assess the morality of the Trump administration’s actions is to evaluate the morality of its motivation—namely, the claim that the Somalis are “garbage.” 

It feels obvious to state this in writing, but the Bible clearly declares that all people, including Somalis, are created in God’s image (See Gen 1:26-27). This foundational Scriptural text, the crescendo of the Genesis 1 creation narrative, means that all of humankind have the equal honour of bearing God’s image, placed in creation to represent God. 

Significantly for Trump’s outburst, James applies this principle of image bearing to the way we speak about one another. “No one can tame the tongue,” James reflects. “With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the image of God.” (James 3:8-9, NRSV) How outrageous, James writes, to dishonour those made in the image of God with our tongue.

Let’s flip this logic. In saying that Somalis are garbage, the President is in effect saying that God is garbage, for humankind reflects God’s image. That’s quite a theological position for Trump to take. It makes me wonder, once again, how Evangelical supporters of Trump can continue in their support. Even if Evangelical supporters are satisfied with this portrayal of an entire people group as “garbage”—as evil and explicitly sinful as this is—are they also satisfied with this portrayal of God as garbage? 

Scripture has still more to say on the subject of God’s Image Bearers. 

Paul teaches that while we are all created in God’s image, we can reflect Christ’s glory to a greater or lesser degree, according to the work of Christ’s Spirit in us (See 2 Corinthians 3:18). Thus, ironically, when we deny the inherent value and dignified worth of other human beings, we are in fact displaying how greatly we ourselves are failing to be transformed into the glory and beauty of Christ. 

As Christ followers, we denounce this evil, calling a spade a spade. We double down on our commitment to contend for justice and human flourishing to reign for all human beings, Image Bearers one and all. Share on X

Having laid bare Trump’s insults, perhaps we should also consider one of his specific arguments: Are refugees a drain on the economy? Again, let’s begin with the President’s words directly, and then consider the argument from there: “These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great,’” as the NY Times reported last month.

Yet as Luke Glanville and I explain in our book, Refuge Reimagined: Biblical Kinship in Global Politics, research shows that in the long term immigration tends to have a positive impact on the employment and incomes of native-born citizens. Immigration tends to raise productivity, “generating new job opportunities and increasing labor force participation of existing citizens.”¹Mark Glanville & Luke Glanville. Refuge Reimagined: Biblical Kinship in Global Politics. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic (2021). 171. To illustrate, one study of European Union countries estimates that every Euro invested in welcoming refugees in 2015 would yield two Euros in economic benefits by 2020.²Philippe Legrain, “Refugees Work: A Humanitarian Investment that Yields Positive Dividends,” tent.org and opennetwork.net, May 2016. Again, his argument is dismissed immediately and with ease. It simply isn’t true, and clear economic data proves this as so.

Continued tolerance of Trump’s racist, xenophobic statements against immigrants among Evangelicals illuminates the callousness of conservative American Christianity at this time, for Trump was elected and continues to be supported largely by White evangelicals. Furthermore, Trump’s analysis of the impact of refugees upon American society is deeply flawed. After all, the U.S. is made of generation after generation of immigrants, alongside First Nations peoples and the descendants of the chattel slave trade of Africans.

The bottom line is clear as day:

If the Trump administration’s stated motivation for their violent, aggressive actions in the Twin Cities is a gauge of the morality of their actions, the “largest immigration enforcement operation ever” is a moral disgrace, rotten at its core. As Christ followers, we denounce this evil, calling a spade a spade. We double down on our commitment to contend for justice and human flourishing to reign for all human beings, Image Bearers one and all.

May this be so.

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When we deny the inherent value and dignified worth of other human beings, we are in fact displaying how greatly we ourselves are failing to be transformed into the glory and beauty of Christ. Share on X