Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I would like to address an open letter. I've done this in the past. During the election season, I had an open letter to Trump and an open letter to Hillary. But today, I would like to address an open letter to the illegal alien on why it is in his own best interest and the best interest of his children to adopt conservative principles and join us, whether it is in the realm of politics, religion, or immigration.

Now, this issue of the illegal immigrant is on the hearts and minds of Americans, as we are seeing DACA in the news, for instance, or perhaps a comprehensive immigration solution. All these things, legislation, both houses of Congress are trying to come to grips with these things, attempting to deal with the flood of illegal aliens who have crossed our borders in the last few decades. And so, I would like to address the prospective illegal alien.

Dear immigrant, perhaps this is you, as you're listening to me today, whether you crossed a searing desert along our southern border on foot surreptitiously, or risking your life, health, and dignity, or whether you flew comfortably into a regional airport with a student visa, which you have long ago overstayed. Hmm. Whether you realize it or not, dear illegal alien, you have helped create in your own small way a constitutional crisis that goes to the very heart of who we are are as a people. Every generation of American has at least one issue that tests its existential core.

Liberty in the American Revolution, slavery in the Civil War, or racism in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, this issue of illegal immigration is one that tests our constitutional integrity. It's one of these issues. We are in the midst of trying to resolve it, and I'm afraid that our side, and I consider myself an unabashed conservative just to the right of a tele-on, if you will. This issue is badly mischaracterized and misunderstood by many, if not most, immigrants crossing our borders without documentation because it has been so poorly explained.

So, let me try and lay our case before you and see why it's in your best interest, dear immigrant. Put aside your preconceived notions of who I am when I say I'm a conservative in favor of border security, but that's not all. I'm also in favor of equal opportunity for all. Do not let the soothing promises of those who dangle government programs and goodies before you and say they have your best interest at heart. Color what you think about my intention for you.

They may be salutary in the long run. You can imagine right now, perhaps, prepare your mind for concepts and a point of view on life that may be new and unthought of by yourself. First of all, let me ask you several questions, okay, and see what your response might be. Why do you want to come here? Very simple question.

Why did you come here, and why do you want to be here? One reliable on-the-ground poll conducted by Latino Decisions, the group Latino Decisions, found that of the thousands of illegal immigrants polled, 77 percent said they came here illegally to find better jobs or opportunities for themselves and their families. Another 12 percent said they came to reunite with family members who had already come here. Far down the list came other reasons like freedom from oppression, escape from the law in their own land, or even a chance to live in a free democracy.

The chief and overriding reason illegal aliens come here is for jobs, economic opportunity, and a chance to prosper. To this, I can say amen. Who can blame you for wanting to work here that pays multiples of what you might earn in Mexico? I certainly cannot blame you for wanting to see a dream come true. For example, some shining examples for me of a chain restaurant throughout the Southwest, like Marcelino Garcia, a Mexican immigrant who founded Chilinos, which is an 11-chain restaurant in the Oklahoma City area, who promised on entering the United States of America.

He said, I promise never to ask the United States government for anything, and I never have. Beautiful. I love this guy. Marcelino Garcia. Or becoming a contractor up and down the West Coast instead of a common laborer like the National Hispanic Construction Association.

It has dozens of success stories of Hispanic immigrants starting their own contracting firms. Or even seeing your name on a fine California Chardonnay originating from your own vineyard like Ronaldo Robleros. He's a Mexican immigrant who went from harvesting grapes to producing them and now has a vineyard in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake Counties. He has 14 vineyards with over 300 acres. Dear immigrant friend, many countless millions of Americans have dreamed the same or similar dream and aspired to the same or similar ambition.

And many of them have achieved them. Wonder of wonders, huh? I trust that something of the same kind of thing motivates you to come to the United States. And the next question that I will ask you is decisive as to whether the opportunities you seek for yourself and your children will endure. So important.

Let me ask you this question. Why do you think these better jobs and opportunities for unlimited success are here and not somewhere else like your home country, your country of origin? There is a reason the United States of America has flourished and prospered beyond any other nation in the history of the world. It's not because we have oppressed other people or stolen from them or any such thing. No, you may not realize it, but it is her founding principles that created the circumstances and environment for prosperity.

If you would guarantee success and prosperity for you and for your children, it is in your own best interest to preserve, sustain, and protect these founding principles. So my dear immigrant friend, let me describe for you 10 of the most significant of those founding principles, 10 of the most significant founding principles that relate directly to your immigration to the United States of America. Number one, it is the individual who creates wealth in the private sector. A founding principle of America. It is the individual, not government.

It is the individual who creates wealth in the private sector. As you have observed in the instance of Mr. Garcia and Rob Ladasz, these men relied upon their own individual intelligence initiative, hard work to succeed for themselves and their families. They did it not because of, but in spite of government interference. Remember Mr. Garcia, I promised I would never ask the government for anything. The public sector, the government cannot and never has created wealth.

It is impossible by its very nature for government to do so. Government by definition is a parasitic entity created by the people for very limited purposes. Things like administering justice or police or military border security, these kinds of things. And as long as that parasite, that is the creature who draws its nourishment from the host, that is the public sector, as long as that parasite enjoys a symbiotic relationship with its host, providing a service to it, then things are good. But both the host and the parasite must always keep in mind who is host.

That is the private sector that creates the wealth to supply the parasite. And all must remember who is the parasite. And that is the government that sucks the resources from the private sector in order to supply limited defined services. When the roles are reversed, the parasite eventually sucks the host dry. And ironically, both of them die.

My dear immigrant friend, I must ask you if some of the things you are doing might not be undermining this principle. How tempting are the government freebies? With free food stamps, I can feed myself and my family. With free health care, I can keep my family healthy. With a free Obama phone, I can stay in touch with my family in Mexico.

With free government assistance, I can pay the rent. On and on it goes. Only know, dear Mr. Immigrant, that in the end, there is nothing free for you or your fellow citizens. You will pay in the erosion of your own character, things like self-reliance, our work ethic, pride in ownership, these kinds of things.

And additionally, the so-called free stuff the government hands out will be called due by history. That is, you, me, and our children will pay the bill through inflation, taxes, and the heavy borrowing that we have done as a nation. You are undermining the very liberty and prosperity you came here to find by taking these freebies. Don't do it. Instead, join us constitutional conservatives and ensure those liberties and prosperity for you and your children.

The second founding principle, big government tyrannizes and limits the individual while limited government liberates and unleashes the individual. Yes, big government tyrannizes. Big government limits the individual, while limited government, on the other hand, liberates and unleashes the individual. Our founding fathers were close students of what John Adams called the divine science of government. As they analyzed the various forms of government throughout history, they observed that most of them were monarchies.

That is, a ruler who got his power in a royal family like Spain, from which Mexico inherited her form of government, or oligarchies, that is, government by a small group of men, or tyrannies, that is, cruel, arbitrary rule by one or a few men. Now, all of these governments reflected the self-serving interests of the government and those that comprised it, not the greater good of the individuals who were being ruled over. No, John Adams put this this way. He says, in the earliest ages of the world, absolute monarchy seems to have been the universal form of government.

Kings and a few of their great counselors and captains exercised a cruel tyranny over the people, unquote. And historical reflection by John Adams. And our other founding fathers as well studied and decided upon a constitutional republic because it was shown to give the greatest liberty to the individual and the smallest powers to the government. Our constitution was so composed that it limited big federal government. It had principles like the separation of powers, checks and balances, the 10th Amendment, which reserved powers to the states, on and on, gave limitless powers to the states and the individuals, the constitution did.

Their judgment has been justified in the crucible of history, I submit to you, as we see individuals under a constitutional republic flourish as no other in the history of man. You've been lied to if you think that the United States went out to plunder other nations and got their riches by stealing. No. Dear prospective immigrant, please always keep this uppermost in your mind and do nothing to compromise it. It's by the sweat of your brow that you will earn your bread and yours alone.

And thereafter, it is your property to do with as you please. That was number two. Well, number three, founding principle number three, God, not government, has given us unalienable rights. Do not think for a moment that government has given you those rights. We can document there from God, unalienable rights.

Dear prospective immigrant, I understand that God and religion play a large role in your life. This is so true for so many immigrants. And I say I'm into that as well. Welcome. So it does in my life, in the lives of our founding fathers.

In fact, those immortal words of our Declaration of Independence reflects this. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with a certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Unquote. Were you aware that Jefferson's first draft read life, liberty, and the pursuit of property? His colleagues on the draft committee, that is Madison and Franklin, advised him to change it to happiness because it was broader and property was included in it.

But the fact remains, a man's property acquired through his own individual labor is his own and cannot be seized or taken by anyone without his consent. If and when you become a citizen, you should be able to rest assured that your property, that is the wealth created through your labor, is your own and no one else's. My dear immigrant friend, I must ask you if your assumptions about our own big bloated federal tick of a government that sucks us dry and its exponents, might they not be undermining the very principles that make you free and prosperous?

Perhaps you look to that big bloated tick of a government and its enthusiasts too for government programs like food stamps. Perhaps you listen to the siren song from Washington DC concerning amnesty and citizenship. Perhaps you listen to advocates who get you an illegal ballot with which to vote. Be careful. Your rights are given you by God and they are inherently his to give and cannot be taken away.

But government, when you and it assume that they are the source of those rights, then government can take away those rights and eventually does too. Instead, embrace Mr. Garcia's credo. That is, I promise never to take anything from the government. Number four, fourth founding principle, dear prospective immigrant, dear illegal alien. Number four, your rights are guaranteed and protected by the rule of law.

Yes, your rights are guaranteed and protected here in America, guaranteed and protected by the rule of law, not the rule of men. How many governments do you know who rule by men in power rather than laws? The recently deceased Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is a most recent example. While Venezuela has a thin veneer of a democracy, it was really Chavez who dictated what went on there, what's going on now as well. Look at Venezuela.

Once it was a rule of men, once it was a rule of law and not of men. Oh, now it is a rule of men and it's the case throughout most of the world, whether we speak of Morsi in Egypt, Kim Jong-il in North Korea or Putin in Russia. So it has been throughout human history, dear listener, dear prospective immigrant, and so it shall be, with the exception of the United States of America and a few other republics peppered throughout the world. Here in America, the tradition has been the rule of law versus the rule of men.

That is, John Adams explained in the Founder's Understanding when he wrote that good government and the very definition of a republic, as he said, is an empire of laws, an empire of laws. In America, the government governs the citizenry according to the law, not by the whims or fancies of our leaders. By requiring our leaders to enact and publish the law and to adhere to the same law that applies to each citizen, the rule of law acts as a potent barrier against tyrannical and arbitrary government. The rule of law also requires that the same law govern all citizens.

Founding father Sam Adams observed that the rule of law means that, and I quote, there shall be one rule of justice for the rich and the poor, for the favored in court and the countrymen at the plow, unquote. Good, good reasoning. Adams, good reasoning. By requiring both the government and the people to adhere to the law, the rule of law serves as the foundational first principle for protecting our liberty.

My dear immigrant friend, I must ask you, if the things that you are doing presently are destroying this principle that makes liberty here in the United States the envy of the world, your very first act in this country violated the rule of law by coming illegally. How many other laws have you broken in the course of your stay here? Have you considered that your lawlessness has seriously compromised the principle of the rule of law for you and for your children? By transgressing the rule of law, you have put in jeopardy the very principles that ensure the liberty and prosperity for which you came.

It's better to cherish and observe those laws that you might strengthen them. Well, the fifth principle then upon which this country was founded, that country to which you wanted to come, dear illegal alien, dear immigrant. Number five, if the rule of law is to predominate and not the rule of men, then the men who make, execute, and adjudicate those laws must be men of Christian integrity. If the rule of law is to predominate and not the rule of men, then the men who make, execute, and adjudicate those laws must be men of Christian integrity. Samuel Adams also observed, our constitution was made only for a virtuous and moral people.

It is entirely unsuited to any other, unquote. Oh, the lust for power is an all-consuming force that will, in the end, rule a man even as he tries to rule his fellow man. How many men have fallen prey to the lust for power? A magistrate in a constitutional republic must temper his exercise of power with self-control, lest he be tempted to extend his power beyond its constitutional limits. Likewise, the people in a constitutional republic must exercise vigilance over their magistrates and restrain, impeach, or punish those who go beyond their enumerated powers.

All of this requires personal integrity, honesty, self-control of one's passions, diligent labor, taking genuine responsibility for one's actions, and acting virtuously at all times, even when no one is licking. Our constitution gives the widest possible liberty and discretion to the individual, not the government, and consequently control of one's passions and actions depends upon the morality and integrity of the individual on one side and the restraint and self-limiting government on the other. Who can avoid the temptations to cede responsibility to government if you're a private citizen except a man of integrity?

Who can avoid grasping for more and more power if you're a public magistrate except a man of integrity? How crucial integrity is on both sides of the equation. So, dear prospective immigrant, I must ask you, are the things that you are doing undermining this very principle, can you be a man of integrity, a thing requisite for true liberty in a free society by sneaking across our borders, lying about your status to employers and citizens, forging documents, avoiding paying taxes? These are not the actions of a Christian citizen of integrity.

In fact, the more they are practiced, the more they undermine and jeopardize the liberty and prosperity you came here to get. The citizens must be men of integrity in order for a free constitutional republic to exist, and more and more of us are less and less men of integrity, than our constitutional republic will perish sooner or later for you and for your children. Well, sixth founding principle. We are made diverse by our heritage, but made won by our constitution. We are made diverse by our heritage, but made won by our constitution.

Perhaps you're familiar with a very dangerous fad in American culture, diversity. Celebrated, indulged, even worshipped as a religious principle. I say it is dangerous because when indulged for its own sake, diversity fragments and divides rather than unites. Our founding fathers observed the diversity of religions, ethnicities, and races on the continent of Europe. For example, nations and empires were built upon these identities, the German blood, the Spanish race, and French culture.

Countless wars and bloodshed ensued. The 30 Years' War, for example, was one of the bloodiest in history, depopulating whole regions of Europe for generations. All in the name of diverse religions. The Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula fought bloody internecine wars for generations, and they still do in the name of their respective ethnicities. And under the heel of all of them, of course, the Jew.

So don't tell me there is unity in diversity. What a lie. In diversity, alone for its own sake, there is only division, dissension, and death. And our founding fathers realized this, and they crafted the most unifying document in history, the United States Constitution. It is this, the Constitution that unites us.

It is a raceless, creedless, and without denomination document. Nowhere on earth is there another nation, another people founded on an idea, a written, objective Constitution like there is here in the United States of America. So, my dear immigrant friend, are you prepared to accept this wholeheartedly? Or do you yet harbor another agenda for America? Perhaps you share the goals of La Raza, that is the race, which is implicitly divisive and destructive and seditious.

La Raza declares the United States is ours. The United States is stolen land. And they rename the United States Azitlan. Hmm. Perhaps you stubbornly refuse to use, to speak, to learn English, celebrate your Mexican citizenship instead, waving her flag, stomping on the red, white, and blue.

Well, if this is the case, if you harbor any hesitation or have second thoughts about your loyalties, refuse to become one under our Constitution, well then, you are undermining the very liberty and prosperity you came here to get. And if you persist in trying to render America to be just another Mexico, then you will get what you wish for. Drug cartels, poverty, ignorance, and tyranny. Number seven. Oh, dear illegal immigrant, dear illegal alien, those prospective to live here.

Number seven, another, our seventh founding principle. The bar for liberty is open to all men, but it is high, requiring a thorough education and a heartfelt commitment. Yes, the bar for liberty is open to all men, but it is a high bar requiring a thorough education and a heartfelt commitment. A citizen of a free republic is a serious man who approaches his duties, responsibilities, and liberties with reverence and study. No one was more insistent on this than Thomas Jefferson.

He said, enlighten the people and tyranny and oppression will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. Unquote. What a beautiful citation. The Constitution is a comprehensible read for the simplest, plainest of men, but it does require study. How can you know your rights and liberties unless you study them?

How can you act to check a tyrant or discern the difference between a thief of your liberties and one who will protect those liberties unless you know what recourse you have under the Constitution? The founding fathers knew that a citizen of a free republic must be an educated citizen in the Constitution. John Adams says children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. An ignorant citizen in a free republic will soon be an ignorant drone in a captive tyranny, dear listener, and you must arm yourself with true knowledge in order to be free.

Thomas Jefferson said the only true corrective of constitutional abuse is education. Unquote. So, my dear prospective immigrant, an open letter to the illegal alien, an open letter to the prospective immigrant. This is one reason why our forefathers wisely required a time of preparation for an immigrant before he took the oath of citizenship. Courses in the Constitution, American history, English, and the rights and duties of citizens were required, taking perhaps years to complete.

And the purpose was to fulfill this principle in order that the prospective immigrant might be thoroughly equipped to be a productive, responsible, successful citizen of his new adopted country. So, I must ask you in all seriousness, have you considered that the things you are doing are the very things that are destroying and undermining this principle? By surreptitiously entering our country, working, laboring, enjoying the fruits of our land without undergoing the rigorous process for becoming a free citizen in a constitutional republic, are you not putting your liberty, and ours for that matter, at risk by your ignorance?

Do you know our constitution? Do you know our rights and liberties? Do you know your responsibilities to your fellow men? My great-grandfather came to America from Holland. He landed at Ellis Island where he legally entered after undergoing a health examination and an interview as to his status and purposes for immigrating.

And he quickly learned English, self-taught himself, American civics in history, and became a citizen two years after his arrival. He strictly forbade my grandfather from speaking Dutch in the home. And he insisted that he was an American, that his first loyalties were to her and her constitution, not Holland, as proud of his heritage as he was. My dear immigrant friend, can this be said of you? Are your first loyalties to the United States or Mexico or another land?

Do you know English as your first language? Do you teach it to your children? Do you know the constitution and its responsibilities and liberties? Your ignorance of these matters will mean you will be that much closer to slavery and subjugation by clever tyrants who will use your ignorance to enslave you. Additionally, it puts my and my fellow citizens' liberty at risk, especially when you can vote, work, and live amongst us.

I submit to you, as long as you avoid educating yourself and taking up the responsibilities of citizenship, you put in jeopardy the very freedom and prosperity that you came here for, and you risk the same for your children. It is in your own best interests to become a constitutional conservative and begin to ensure your future liberty and prosperity as a free citizen of the United States. This has been Pastor David Bass with an open letter to the illegal alien, to the prospective immigrant. New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church meets for holy worship on Sunday at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Come and join us for worship service 10 a.m. on Sunday, 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and you can call us for more information at 208-523-0196.