Who Would Jesus Deport? – A grassroots movement is forming in which anti-immigrant rhetoric dovetails with the odes to God and country that have long constituted conservative evangelical boilerplate.

“”The Bible is an immigration handbook,” Maruskin told the FRC audience. “Cursed be the person who oppresses the alien. Can we forget that Christ himself was a migrant and a refugee, born in a stable? Under our laws, Mary, Joseph and Jesus would be sent to three different prisons.”

A powerful image, but Maruskin’s position is far from dominant on the religious right. In a FRC member poll conducted last spring, 90% of respondents chose forced deportation as the appropriate fate for Americas estimated 11 million-12 million undocumented immigrants. This response aligns the FRC base with fire-breathing hard-liners like U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo R-Colo., the evangelical co-sponsor of an immigration reform bill notable for its criminalization of those who “aid and abet” illegal immigrants, something many religious leaders and laymen see as a Christian duty.”

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