"Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt." – Exodus 22:21

“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt." – Exodus 23:12

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them." – Leviticus 19:33

"The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God." – Leviticus 19:34

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 23:22

"You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 24:22

“Hear my prayer, Lord, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. I dwell with you as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were." – Psalm 39:12

"The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob." – Isaiah 14:11

"Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, 'The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.' And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.'” – Isaiah 56:3

"Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?" – Luke 17:18

"In the Law it is written: 'With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.'” – I Corinthians 14:21

"… remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world … Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household …" – Ephesians 2:12,19

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth." – Hebrews 11:13

"Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear." – I Peter 1:17

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." – Galatians 3:28

"Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." – Hebreews 13:2

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” – Mark 9:37

"By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient." – Hebrews 11:31

"… and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." – II Peter 1:11

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

                                                                                                        Emma Lazarus

Welcome, friends … from Haiti, Somalia, Syria, El Salvador, Mexico, from wherever you wander and are oppressed. Come and live among us as fellow heirs of the unfinished promise that is America in the unfolding reality that is, the Kingdom of God.