Franklin Graham—the President and CEO of both Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)—is a xenophobic and racist white Christian nationalist.
Point-blank. Period.
In a recent Facebook post, in part, Graham writes:
“Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, made a shocking statement to MSNBC when he said that undocumented immigrants are the ones they
‘care about most.’”
Graham’s response to such an incredulous statement: “Wow.”
He then goes on to write:
“These are people who have broken the law and come into this country illegally-and they are being given millions of dollars in benefits that are being taken away from legal, bonified [sic] citizens of this country. This reveals the evil intent of the Democratic party.”
Franklin Graham not only is a xenophobic and racist white Christian nationalist, but also is factually wrong.
There are between 10 to 12 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, and over 40 percent of them entered the country legally through legal ports of entry. According to a report by the Center for Migration Studies, since 2007, visa overstays have outnumbered undocumented border crossers. The report’s authors also state:
“In addition, a growing percentage of border crossers in recent years have originated in the Northern Triangle states of Central America (CBP 2016). These migrants are fleeing pervasive violence, persecution, and poverty, and a large number do not seek to evade arrest, but present themselves to border officials and request political asylum. Many are de facto refugees, not illegal border crossers.”
Undocumented immigrants are not “being given millions of dollars in benefits that are being taken away” from American citizen, as Graham alleges. Annually, undocumented immigrants contribute approximately $11.74 billion in state and local taxes, which according to FWD.us, includes “more than $7 billion in sales and excise taxes, $3.6 billion in property taxes, and $1.1 billion in personal income taxes.” Furthermore, the Center for American Progress estimates that providing a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants in the United States “would boost U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by a cumulative total of $1.7 trillion over 10 years and create 438,800 new jobs.”
Even when singling out Mexican undocumented immigrants, who are most often used as scapegoats by anti-immigrant Americans, consider the following from the New American Economy Research Fund:
“In 2019 alone, Mexican undocumented households earned almost $92 billion in household income and contributed $9.8 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, even assuming conservative estimates that only half of all undocumented households filed taxes. This is in addition to the $11.7 billion in contributions to Social Security and $2.8 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund that were made by or on behalf of employers of Mexican undocumented immigrants. After taxes, Mexican undocumented immigrants held more than $82.2 billion in spending power, money that often goes back into local economies as they spend on housing, consumer goods, and services.”
Thus, undocumented immigrants pay into federal entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, programs from which they are unable to receive benefits given their undocumented status.
These are facts.
Beyond their benefits to the economy, immigrants—undocumented or otherwise—contribute vibrant, rich, and beautiful threads to the social fabric that is the tapestry of America. It is so utterly despicable then of Graham, to call the pursuit of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants “evil intent.” According to the Samaritan’s Purse website, “Franklin Graham has devoted his life to meeting the needs of people around the world and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
So what does Jesus Christ have to say?
In his teaching to his disciples, speaking of “the least of these,” Jesus said the following:
“‘Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me’” (Matthew 25:34-36 NRSV).
The “least of these” are the poor, the needy, the vulnerable, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the ostracized, the villainized, and the oppressed of the world. The “least of these” includes immigrants, includes refugees, includes asylum seekers, and includes undocumented immigrants.
But according to Graham:
“Bottom line: it's about buying votes with government money! They want to give them benefits, then they will want to give them ID's, and then the next step will be citizenship—so they can vote.”
In 1866, then President Andrew Johnson wrote to Missouri Governor Thomas C. Fletcher: “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” Johnson vehemently opposed the post-Civil War plans for Reconstruction, which included amendments to the Constitution (namely the 14th and 15thamendments). For white Christian nationalists like Franklin Graham, xenophobia and racism are part and parcel of continuing to advance an agenda of white supremacy.
With a continuing decline in births and an aging white population, many white Americans are fearful of the inevitable: the white population of America will become less than 50 percent in coming decades. Attempts to reduce levels immigration are merely attempts to keep America white. And this is despite the fact that, even with low immigration, according to the Brookings Institution: “No matter the scenario, the U.S. will experience a rise in the share of the total population that identifies as a nonwhite race or ethnic group.”
As a Christian and follower of the Way of Jesus, I find Graham’s denigration of undocumented immigrants profoundly disgusting. As a Black immigrant—specifically an immigrant who spent almost two decades as an undocumented immigrant—I find Graham’s lies about undocumented immigrants altogether dangerous. Graham ends his post: “Wake up America—there's an election coming!”
I am reminded of these words from the Scriptures:
“[Y]ou are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
you worker of treachery.
You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking the truth.
Selah.” (Psalms 52:2-3 NRSV)
It is Franklin Graham and others who desperately need to wake up, for they have been lulled to sleep by centuries-old Siren song of white supremacy and Christian nationalism. This is about far more than an election.
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