“It was starting to become dangerous,” he says. “They wanted to create violence and then blame it on the laborers.”

By contrast, I was reminded of Jesus’ parable of an employer who can’t hire enough day laborers:

“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’”

With so much in the recent news about the ever-increasing volatility of U.S. immigration policy, it seems that more attention should be paid to Jesus’ teaching. On this one, I at least appreciate Bush’s recent statements that “the American people shouldn’t have to choose between a welcoming society and a lawful society.”