Critics of President Donald Trump’s deportation plans are proving manifold despite the Democratic Party’s brief switch to tough-on-immigration rhetoric during the campaign season. Every opposing argument now centers on some humanitarian concern, and as a result, humanity is lost in the mix.
Complaints focus on a few aspects of Trump’s immigration policy: arrests, asylum, and the massive scale of it all. A reformed asylum-seeking process, including revetting applicants and reinstating Remain in Mexico orders, waxes discompassionate to some. Meanwhile, the recent misconstrual of the “sensitive location” arrest policy stokes sensitivity to family separations during Trump’s first term.
Vice President JD Vance and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have been in public disagreement on the matter. The organization’s president published a statement denouncing some of Trump’s executive orders as “deeply troubling,” including those related to immigration. In an interview with CBS, Vance said that “the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit” and reconsider its motivations.
The exchange itself is troubling. But Vance introduced a valid, if hasty, line of questioning to a growing number of equally hasty complaints. Of course, Vance is free to criticize a bishop, but beyond church politics, the vice president is making it clear that the ruckus over an inhumane deportation process is being misrepresented.
It is a problem of scope. Most retorts come in the form of exhortations to love one’s neighbor and care for the poor, to reject blanket judgment, and to prize humans over national identity. These are all good things, and for many caught up in the debate, their biblical justification really is worth something. But when Vance and others repeatedly resort to the common examples of Laken Riley-like murders and sex trafficking rings, it is not just a “Make America Great Again” rally refrain: It places the proper burden on the government.
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Though cynically, we joke that the government does not care about the individual, the statement fits into reality. The circumstances for which corporal works of mercy are viable are almost exclusive to the individual, yet they make up most of what deportation opponents offer as alternatives. Trump, as president, along with his administration, is tasked with the mass procedural responsibilities of running the nation, considering the welfare of typical citizens, and balancing foreign relations.
The failure to distinguish between these bodies, individual and government, makes it harder to discern what is charitable to others, both citizen and undocumented. That is the situation that rash humanitarian concern has created for the country.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
