Students across the country cut class on Friday and Monday to encourage Congress to “stop funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
The walkouts, which led to school closures in several states, follow weeks of turmoil in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where clashes between ICE agents and well-organized protestors led to the tragic deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Teachers and administrators joined the students’ protests in places like Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott vowed to investigate Austin Independent School District (AISD) for misuse of taxpayer funds.
“AISD gets taxpayer dollars to teach subjects required by the state, not help students skip school to protest,” Abbott wrote on X.
“Our schools are for educating children, not political indoctrination.”
In this case, political indoctrination is only part of the problem. Parents should take great issue with teachers or administrators encouraging their children to engage in what could well be construed as performative activism.
Performative activists generally care more about connecting themselves to a social movement than causing actual change. People usually engage in performative activism to:
Fit in with a group.
Gain social capital.
Feel as though they contributed to a positive change.
Most participants in the walkouts probably wouldn’t call them performative. Many students likely believe ICE agents in Minnesota have violated people’s rights and that protesting — as teachers, celebrities and politicians frequently claim — will stop those violations.
In reality, the walkouts blocked roads and disrupted instruction time. As for defunding ICE, Congress already funded the department through 2029 via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
At most, the walkouts could cause Congress to stall funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE. But DHS also oversees agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which aids Americans affected by natural disasters.
Unintended or harmful consequences like these often follow performative activists, because they don’t prioritize solving a social problem — only the appearance of it.
For the same reason, performative activism inevitably reduces complex issues like immigration and border enforcement to catchy slogans and clumsy narratives — language which looks good on protest signs and plays well on social media.
The goal is generally to give activists an easy, feel-good cause to support, not facilitate a substantive discussion.
The student walkouts clearly identify ICE agents as the bad guys. The students do not have to think through the economic and social importance of enforcing national borders.
They do not have to hold the actions of ICE agents in tension with the consequences of incentivizing illegal immigration, like corporations paying illegal migrants below average wages.
They do not have to consider the connection between illegal immigration and drug cartels, which profit from every person who crosses the southern border illegally.
They do not have to grapple with the facts that unaccompanied migrant children are among the most harmed by a porous border.
Understanding and engaging with nuance is not only a critical part of analyzing complex social and political issues. It’s also an essential feature of biblical justice, which emphasizes impartiality and proportional punishment.
In Exodus 23, God lays out several rules for adjudicating disputes, warning the Israelites against showing partiality, accepting bribes, bearing false witness or bringing false charges against another.
Many of the same themes carry through Leviticus. Leviticus 19:15 commands, “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”
Leviticus 24:19-20 establishes the expectation that wrongdoers receive punishments according to the severity of the crime committed.
These passages portray delivering justice as a sober process requiring careful investigation, righteousness (Psalm 106:3) and knowledge of the Lord (Proverbs 28:5). Accordingly, no one can advocate for biblical justice without considering nuance.
It is parents’— not teachers’ — job to teach children to seek and love biblical justice. But parents should not have to worry teachers will encourage students to engage in a form of activism which recklessly prioritizes the self over biblical justice.
Additional Articles and Resources
Border Crackdown Discourages ‘Fraudulent Families,’ Child Trafficking
American immigration System Loses Contact with Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children
Trump Sees Lowest Border Numbers in History: ‘The Invasion is Over’
Violent Gang Takes Advantage of American Immigration Policy
Politics is Putting Children at Risk on the Southern Border
Trump’s Border Czar Explains Child Trafficking Under Biden Administration
It’s Compassionate to Oppose Illegal immigration. Here’s Why.
Talking to Your Kids About Illegal Immigration
Four Ways to Protect Your Kids From Assassination Culture
My Rescue From Human Trafficking to New Life in Christ
Identifying the Signs of Human Trafficking
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