Reid Ribble: If Trump wants to win evangelical voters, he should stop dehumanizing immigrants

When former President Trump visited Wisconsin last week, his primary campaign message focused on immigrants, whom he described as “the worst of every country” invading and threatening the well-being of the United States. Earlier, he insisted that some immigrants are “not humans, they’re animals.”

Trump also insisted in Green Bay that Christian voters will turn out on Election Day “in numbers no one has ever seen before,” presumably inspired by his rhetoric on immigration.

But as both a former Republican member of Congress who represented Green Bay and — more central to my identity, an evangelical Christian — my plea to the former president would be to speak of and pursue policies that impact immigrants in ways guided by the Bible. Immigrants, like all human beings, are people “fearfully and wonderfully made” in the image of God, with inherent dignity and value, regardless of their country of origin, ethnicity, religion or any other qualifier.

Christians also believe that all human beings, including immigrants, are sinners in need of God’s grace. A few have committed heinous criminal offenses, and when they do, they absolutely should face both the criminal justice system and then deportation. But it’s wrong to judge millions of people by the actions of a few, especially when there is abundant evidence that immigrants, whether lawfully present or not, actually commit crimes at significantly lower rates per capita than native-born U.S. citizens. For example, a study using data from the state of Texas found that citizens had a per capita crime rate more than double that of immigrants in the country unlawfully, whether looking at property, drug or violent crimes.

A singular focus on the relatively few immigrants who may be a threat to public safety also obscures the many ways that immigrants economically, socially and spiritually contribute to our community. As evangelical leader Ed Stetzer has observed, “The Mexican immigrant in your community is more likely to be a pastor than he is to be a criminal.” As the United States rapidly secularizes, the large majority of immigrants are either Catholic or evangelical Christians who tend to hold to traditional family values.

Tragically, Democratic President Joe Biden obscures the humanity of a different set of people made in the image of God. He advocates for abortion rights without acknowledging the humanity of the unborn child, whom most evangelical Christians also believe is made in the image of God with inherent dignity. Evangelical polling firm Lifeway Research finds that 89% of evangelical Christians believe that life begins by the point that an unborn child has a heartbeat, if not before.

It’s probably not surprising to most Americans that abortion is a significant concern for many evangelical voters — and is a reason most are unlikely to vote for Biden’s reelection.

But Trump does not seem to realize that many evangelical voters also believe in the dignity of immigrants’ lives: Lifeway Research finds that 91% of all evangelicals want immigration policy solutions that “respect the God-given dignity” of each person.

Almost all evangelicals, like most Americans, want secure borders and respect for the rule of law, but they also want compassion. Fully 78% of evangelicals, including 71% of those who supported Trump in the 2020 election, say they would support legislation that would pair border security improvements with a restitution-based legalization process and path to citizenship for immigrants in the country unlawfully.

Ninety-one percent of evangelicals want policies that keep families together — which is inconsistent with the “largest deportation in American history” promised by Trump last week, which would separate U.S. citizens from their foreign-born spouse or parents. And 71% of evangelicals believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to welcome refugees.

Many churches in northeastern Wisconsin have partnered with ministries like World Relief Wisconsin to welcome newly arriving refugees, and as we’ve done so, these immigration issues have become personal. By maligning immigrant families who have become dear friends, Trump risks alienating evangelical Wisconsinite voters whom he says he wants to show up in record numbers on Election Day. And last week’s primary election results, where one in five Republican voters cast a protest vote for a non-Trump candidate no longer in the race, suggest he has a serious problem.

If Trump, or Biden, wants to appeal to Christian voters, they would do well to use language and pursue policies that reflect the dignity of each person as made in the Image of God.

Reid Ribble represented Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District from 2011 to 2017.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Opinion: Trump's views on immigrants contradict Christian values