“They should have just obeyed the law!”

There is a deeply uncharitable and dishonest phrase that appears almost every time someone dies during immigration enforcement:

“They should have just complied.”

Or:

“They should have come here legally.”

Those words are often spoken as though they settle the matter, as though a person’s death can be explained away if we can imagine some rule they might have broken.

But they do not fit the facts.

Many of the people who have died during immigration enforcement were complying with officers. Some were unarmed. Some were already in custody. Some had legal permission to be in the United States. Others were in the middle of the very legal immigration processes they were told to follow. Some had no criminal convictions at all. Others may have violated immigration law, which is generally a civil, not criminal, matter, but none of that answers the central question: Why should paperwork, status, or even resistance to arrest ever become a death sentence?

The answer is it shouldn’t. Ever.

That is the question followers of Jesus should be asking. Because no one should die over paperwork. No one should die in the name of immigration enforcement.

When someone responds, “They should have just obeyed the law,” I cannot help but think about another prominent execution, one that is central to our faith. Jesus of Nazareth.

Some object to that comparison by saying, “Jesus did obey the law.”

Yes, He fulfilled the Law of God perfectly (Matthew 5:17). He committed no sin (1 Peter 2:22). Even Pilate repeatedly declared that he found no guilt worthy of death in Him (Luke 23:4, 14–15, 22). But that is precisely the point.

Jesus was not executed because He was guilty. He was executed because those with power manipulated both religious and political law to eliminate someone they perceived as dangerous.

The religious authorities charged Him with blasphemy (Mark 14:61–64).

Before Rome, however, that charge would not have justified crucifixion. So the accusation changed.

They told Pilate: “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” (Luke 23:2)

Notice the accusation. Not merely false religious teaching. It was treason.

In the Roman world, claiming kingship in opposition to Caesar was a political crime worthy of capital punishment.

That is why the inscription fastened above His head read: Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ Βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων Iēsous ho Nazōraios ho Basileus tōn Ioudaiōn: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” (John 19:19)

In Latin: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, the familiar INRI.

This was not only a mockery of the Jewish people by Roman authorities, it was the official statement of Rome explaining why this man was being crucified to all who would see it.

To proclaim oneself or be proclaimed as βασιλεύς (basileus, “king”) was understood as rival sovereignty. Rome tolerated many religions. It did not tolerate competing kings. The cross was Rome’s public warning against perceived rebellion.

So, imagine standing at Golgotha and saying “Well…He should have just obeyed the law.”

The tragedy of that statement is not merely that it misunderstands Jesus and the context he was living in. It assumes that governments always administer justice simply because they have written laws.

Scripture never makes that assumption. In fact, the prophets repeatedly condemn rulers who use law itself as an instrument of oppression.

“Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression.” (Isaiah 10:1–2)

“They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.” (Amos 2:6)

“He has told you, O man, what is good…to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Justice, not mere legality, has always been God’s concern.

This brings us to Romans 13, which is one of the most frequently quoted passages whenever Christians question government. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities…” (Romans 13:1)

Some read this as though Paul were teaching unquestioning obedience to every law enacted by every government, but not even Paul himself lived that way.

The immediate context of Romans 13 concerns civil order, taxation, and avoiding needless conflict with governing authorities (Romans 13:6–7). Paul is describing the ordinary function of government as one that should reward good and restrain evil. He is not declaring that governments are incapable of evil. Nor is he saying everyone must obey every governmental command without exception.

The same Paul who wrote Romans 13 repeatedly refused orders that contradicted his obedience to Christ. He continued preaching after being imprisoned (Acts 16). He appealed unjust treatment under Roman law (Acts 22:25–29). He accepted imprisonment rather than stop proclaiming the gospel (Acts 21–28). Church tradition and the earliest Christian witnesses testify that he was ultimately executed by Rome under Nero because of his faithfulness to Christ.

Likewise, Peter, who wrote about honoring governing authorities (1 Peter 2:13–17), also declared before those same authorities: “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)

The Bible consistently teaches respect for governing authority. It never teaches worship of governing authority. It never teaches that law itself is the definition of righteousness.

History proves why that distinction matters. Laws once defended slavery. Laws enforced segregation. Laws enforced the subjugation of women and children. Laws criminalized those who hid Jewish families from the Nazis. Laws criminalized those who set slaves free in America. Laws criminalized sitting in the wrong place at a lunch counter or a bus as a Black person. Laws have often protected the powerful while crushing the vulnerable.

The prophets did not ask whether something was legal. They asked whether it was just. As followers of Jesus, we should do the same. Whether someone entered our country legally, overstayed a visa, crossed a border unlawfully, or is awaiting an asylum hearing does not answer the moral question. None of those things deserve death.

If someone commits a violent crime, they should receive due process. If someone violates immigration law, they should receive due process. If someone must be removed from a country, that removal should happen with respect for the dignity that every human being bears as one made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27).

This is really at the heart of the matter. We have reached a point in our current age that immigrants and people of color have continuously been demonized as criminals, invaders, animals, dehumanized to the point that we can justify the harshest and most cruel treatment towards them. Dying not only in hidden humane conditions in detention centers, but even by lethal force used by armed, masked, immigration agents.



When Christians instinctively respond to another death by asking how the victim failed instead of whether justice was done, or holding those in power accountable, we should examine our hearts.

Jesus did not command us to defend every action of the state.

He commanded us to love our neighbor (Mark 12:31).

To welcome the stranger (Matthew 25:35).

To liberate the oppressed (Luke 4:18-19).

To remember that whatever we do to “the least of these,” we do to Him (Matthew 25:40).

The Church’s calling has never been merely to preserve law and order. Our calling is higher.

Our King was executed by a government that believed it was protecting law and order. It was supported by those who believed they were preserving religious beliefs.

The resurrection is God’s declaration that justice stands above every earthly throne.

So when another image-bearer dies in the name of “law and order,” our first response should never be, “They should have complied.”

Our first response should be grief. Then truth. Then justice.

And no follower of Jesus should mistake the preservation of power for the righteousness of God.