What Jesus might say about Charlotte border patrol and undocumented immigrants

The Charlotte, North Carolina border patrol activity on Nov. 15 went viral with video clips on social media. Comments filled with misinformation spread just as quickly.

On this Sunday morning, this dilemma postulates that Jesus would not endorse cruelty, humiliation, racial profiling, or fear-based tactics. He would not condone indifference to suffering.

NC Governor Josh Stein’s Nov. 14 press release states “Public safety is the top priority for all of us in government – and that means fighting crime, not stoking fear or causing division. We should all focus on arresting violent criminals and drug traffickers. Unfortunately, that’s not always what we have seen with ICE and Border Patrol Agents in Chicago and elsewhere around the country.  The vast majority of people they have detained have no criminal convictions, and some are American citizens.”

The Global Statistics reports “Regional crime rate patterns demonstrate that North Carolina has the highest crime rate at 76.3% among apprehended illegal immigrants, while Texas shows the lowest rate at 68.3% despite having the highest absolute numbers.”

The exact number of undocumented immigrants in North Carolina, and how many are involved in illegal activity, is unknown, because just like legal citizens, not all the criminals have been convicted.

So, while individual cases of illegal activity exist, the numbers are uncertain, making it impossible to claim all undocumented immigrants are criminals.

Another argument is the “noncitizen voting debate.”

There is no verifiable evidence that Democrats in North Carolina are paying or organizing undocumented immigrants to vote, but there are a few individual cases of people trying with fake social security numbers and driver’s licenses.

I witnessed one case of an undocumented immigrant who broke the heart of an entire hardware store in Moore County about 20 years ago. The young man, M, had worked for several years in Florida as a horse groomer before marrying and moving to North Carolina with his wife and child. Through word of mouth about his hard work ethic and ability to understand procedures quickly, the family hardware store hired M.

During an audit, the finance office discovered M’s social security number belonged to someone who was buried. Yes, M knew it was a fake and asked the store owner to help with his ongoing work toward legal citizenship, but the store was under financial duress and knew it would be closing shop soon, so it did not bother with helping.

“What would Jesus do?”

 It’s a bit cliché, but it seems like a good time to rediscover its power.

Nov. 16, 2025

Stephanie M. Sellers

Editor

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