I found the following quote when doing research for an article I am writing:
“To seek justice is to relieve the oppressed. But how else are the oppressed to be relieved if not by judging the oppressor and crushing the ability to oppress! History is not a Sunday school where the question is to forgive or not to forgive. The toleration of injustice is the toleration of human suffering. Since the proud and the mighty who inflict the suffering do not, as a rule, yield to moral persuasion, responsibility for the sufferer demands that justice be done so that oppression be ended.”
— Eliezer Berkovits, “Man and God: Studies in Biblical Theology”
I also found in the same section the following:
“For rabbinic interpreters of Torah and for the prophets, the pursuit of justice in society was paramount, Correcting the evils originated by human beings was considered the highest ethical priority. Moses’ repetition of ‘justice, justice’ was understood to mean: ‘Don’t be satisfied with observing wrongdoing. Stand up and protest against it!’”
The irony I have found in our current immigration policies is that first we cut off funds to the countries from which would-be migrants are coming. Then, we incarcerate them under conditions which are inhuman and not worthy of us Americans. We have belittled and denigrated other human beings in an effort to discourage them from entering our borders.
Defend the borders as we must, but treat those who are attempting to escape oppression by giving aid to their home countries and working with them to improve conditions so that these people won’t be motivated to run in the first place. Then meet those who do cross over our borders with decency and kindness, food, medicine, clothing and living conditions that are reflective of American values; for these, too, are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated as such.