I read of and listen to social disgust as ICE does its job, driving around and gathering up people they think illegally entered this country, never to be seen from again.  As I hear their outrage and listen to righteous signaling, I see through it.  Their position is rooted in self-interest disguised as compassion.  It is a mirror image of the antebellum rationale that prioritizes the money in slavery over justice.  ICE enforcing immigration laws isn’t anti-immigrant—it’s pro-fairness, ensuring opportunities for legal residents. Our responsibility is, first and foremost, to our citizens.

All of this came full circle last Sunday during a conversation that happened in the early hours before sunrise.

I recently made a new friend.  He worked as a lead electrician on a large job site north of Charlotte.  He had been attending one of the Every Man a Warrior Meetings that I host each Sunday, and he had 15 minutes of my undivided attention.  He made a passing comment that the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had messed up his business, and I asked him what he meant.  Over the next few minutes, I asked him repeated questions, trying to understand his circumstances.  As the meeting ended and we parted ways, I considered what he said as I drove off and spoke to my wife.

“Anne, I just went back in time to 1864.  I feel like that man I just spoke with was a modern-day slave owner and justified what he was doing just as much as white people did back then.”  Anne reciprocated, asking me a hundred questions to understand what I was talking about.

Tom (anonymous name) had 33 illegal immigrants working for him as electricians and electrical helpers.  Many of them had been with him for years.  Once they heard that ICE was around, none of them showed up for work.  He had to repeatedly call them and visit them at their “house” to plead that the conditions were safe and that they could work.  Eventually, his lead foreman agreed to come back, and once he did, many of the others followed.  Although he wasn’t at full production, he was close to it.  His business’s bottom line was greatly affected, and he was upset that their departure affected his productivity as much as it did.

And in the midst of that, he shared with great pride in his voice that these illegals lived in two rental houses, each with two bedrooms, that he paid for.  You do the math: 33 illegals, living in a total of 4 bedrooms….

What impacted me, though, was his sense of justification and righteousness that mirrored the plantation owner’s language.  I want to share with you the lies that we have all been listening to and how to combat modern-day plantation owners who favor leaving illegals alone.

Claim 1: These Latinos of mine fill jobs (agriculture, cleaning, and construction) that I can’t get White Folks around here to do. 

We have all heard that one.  This assumes that whites are lazy and/or entitled on a large scale.  The issue is that the evidence doesn’t support this claim.  The Center for Immigration Studies shows that the majority of these jobs are, in fact, held by whites and by citizens. Undocumented labor simply reduces wages and reduces incentives to implement automation.  Slaveholders claimed enslaved Africans were “best culturally suited” for “this kind of work.”  Tom’s words in 2025 mirror those used in 1864, before the Emancipation Proclamation.

Claim 2: I need to use Illegals; otherwise, prices will be too high, and my products won’t be affordable.  What alternative do I have?

This assumes that the most crucial factor for businesses is short-term profit. Slaveholders argued, even to the point of risking violence, that keeping cotton cheap was tied to their cultural heritage. Slaveholders never acknowledged that their economic dependence on a single crop, their lack of innovation, and their own moral bankruptcy were the root causes.  This thinking is alive and well.

Claim 3: It is a damn lie that illegals don’t pay taxes.  They do, and they start businesses too.

It is true that they pay state and local taxes, but they consume about ten times as much in federal benefits as they contribute in state and local taxes (Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy). Look it up.  That is also not credible.

Claim 4: We are providing them with jobs and shelter they can’t get in their home countries.  This life is better than the one they left.

This paternalism signals “I am virtuous” in ways that mock the truth.  His Latino electricians continue to endure abuse and work in conditions that are more dangerous than those they left. His words, not mine.  I was not about to tell Tom that his policies of free housing and steady work were incentivizing human trafficking, but they were.

This is the language of the “benevolent master” playbook used by those who housed “niggers” coming off boats from West Africa 200 years ago.  “All men are created equal” is thrown out the door when you think you are righteous and doing them a favor by giving them a job.

Claim 5: Illegals are filling a labor shortage.  It is as simple as that. Deport them all, and our economy falls apart, especially agriculture. 

Shortages are fabricated, created by employers trying to avoid higher wages or the cost of VISAs. Here’s a fact: the USDA has more VISA slots available for guest agricultural workers than there are people who apply for them each year. The idea that there are long lines of people denied visas to work in agriculture is nonsense.  However, those who fail to fact-check this start believing their own lies.

Keep in your memory that slaveholders warned of “ruin” and “crops rotting in the field” without unfettered use of slaves on plantations.  Sound familiar?

Claim 6: Most illegals are criminals.  They are just hardworking family people seeking an opportunity for a better world. 

This lie is my favorite.  Illegal entry is a crime.  They are criminals the day that they enter illegally.  Argument over.  Full stop.

The ambiguity comes from folks not knowing what defines a nation’s sovereignty.  Geographically, it starts at our borders.  I can’t write a ticket to someone speeding while they are in Canada.  That is only possible once they cross our borders and enter the USA.

Suppose we don’t enforce the laws at the border. Where, then, does it start?  Do we wait until they are ten miles inland at a Walmart in San Diego, while shoplifting, or a hundred miles in at a car dealership in LA, or a thousand miles in at a welfare center in Chicago with false social security cards?

A better question is “What are the characteristics of a person who commits a crime?”  The #1 answer to that question, regardless of location or circumstance, is “those who have already committed a crime and gotten away with it.”

Claim 7: Jesus would embrace immigrants.  Why don’t you?

Jesus had boundaries like few who have ever lived.  He flipped over tables on money changers, calling out their efforts to turn the temple into a den of robbers.  They were exploiting a space that wasn’t theirs.  Sound familiar?  Jesus might open with open arms all those who seek refuge, but he would not bless those who wound the flocks they join.  Instead, he would certainly treat them just like he did the woman at the well.  He would tell them to repent, make amends, and sin no more.  True compassion demands both forgiveness and the fire of accountability.

The people who make claims that Jesus would open His arms to immigrants aren’t debating.  They are dodging the truth that they know, deep in their soul.  ICE isn’t the villain; ICE is the firewall for fairness. Prioritize citizens? Yes. Welcome immigrants legally? Absolutely. But please, ditch the righteousness.