 Vice President JD Vance with President Trump. |
IN A recent Fox News interview, Vice President JD Vance defended the Trump administration's severe immigration policies by suggesting only crazed leftists could object to them.
"There's something very deranged in the mind of the far left in this country," he told interviewer Sean Hannity. "I really do think that they feel more of a sense of compassion for illegal aliens who have no right to be in this country than they do their fellow citizens, and that really has to change."
A moment later, citing what he called "a very Christian concept," he amplified the point.
"You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country," Vance said. "And then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside."
In response to Christian critics on social media, Vance doubled down. "Just google 'ordo amoris,'" he posted. The Latin term, which means "order of loves," comes from the writings of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, who used it in the context of personal virtue and individual responsibility — not to justify a controversial government policy.
As is often the case when politicians invoke religion or scripture, Vance — a former atheist who converted to Catholicism in 2019 — is not carefully assessing which policies he should support in light of his obligations as a Christian. He is conjuring up religion to defend government policies he already favors. Even supposing he is right about the hierarchy of love that should guide human behavior, does anyone imagine that love is the basis of the Trump administration's ferocious assault on immigration?
After all, President Trump's orders have gone far beyond directing immigration officials to round up undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes against American citizens. He eliminated the requirement that federal agents target unlawful migrants who pose a threat to public safety, with the result that arrests of migrants without criminal records has skyrocketed.
The White House has moved with exceptional speed to throttle legal migration, too. Within hours of his inauguration, Trump proclaimed the right to suspend any immigration laws that interfere with his agenda. Immediately thereafter, as the Cato Institute's David Bier has documented, he pulled the plug on one lawful immigration program after another.
All refugee entries have been halted. So have all the procedures to apply for lawful entry as a refugee. An exceptionally successful humanitarian program that enabled migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Ukraine to enter the United States under the sponsorship of American citizens has been shut down. Trump has even pulled the rug out from under Afghans who risked their lives to support American troops and diplomats and were previously cleared to relocate to the United States.
Does all this reflect Vance's moral admonition to "love your fellow citizens in your own country"? Or does it reflect merely the bitter nativism that has always been Trump's deepest political passion?
Of course it is true that, as a general rule, our obligation to care for those closest to us takes precedence over obligations to aid those who are more distant. It is perfectly reasonable to say that since you cannot help everyone, you should prioritize those you are closer to. But that is hardly an excuse for demonizing or persecuting those you are unable to assist. Yes, charity begins at home. But it shouldn't end there. Centuries before Aquinas was writing about "ordo amoris," the towering Jewish sage Hillel famously taught: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I?"
Ideally, the instinctive concern we feel for our relatives and friends should motivate us to expand our benevolence and compassion to others. Again and again, Judeo-Christian teachings make the point that empathy radiates outward from the narrow and parochial to the broader and more encompassing. The Hebrew Bible admonishes: "Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Aquinas stresses that as we act with charity and kindness toward those closest to us, "the heart is enlarged thereby."
Again, these are ethical rules for individuals, not a policy blueprint for governments. Vance would do better to try explaining the administration's policies in terms of national interest rather than try to fit them into a theological principle. Either way, however, the fierce White House crackdown on immigration — especially legal immigration — is indefensible. It has always been in America's national and moral interest to welcome peaceful and grateful newcomers. A blessing for them; perhaps even more of a blessing for us.
Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.
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