After weeks of pro-illegal immigration protests, rallies peaked yesterday with over a million mostly Hispanic immigrants and their supporters skipping work and taking to the streets across the United States. The protests were sparked by proposed U.S. legislation that would increase penalties for illegal immigrants and classify them as felons.

The HR 4437 bill, aimed at increased homeland security and border control, was passed by the House of Representatives last December and is currently under consideration by the Senate. While the rallies bringing hundreds of thousands of protestors to the streets have been all over the news, what has been less publicized is the fact that the protests over recent weeks have already resulted in a softening of the proposed legislation.

Referring to the student protests in March and early April, Stratfor stated, “These swiftly organized demonstrations focused the public’s attention on the issues raised by the House bill and changed the debate in Congress, and set the stage for the Senate to pass a far more moderate bill” (April 13). Some of the provisions struck from the bill are those that criminalize illegal immigration and the giving of aid to illegal aliens.

With the scale of protests mounting since then, popular opposition to the legislation has increased, and we are yet to see where this will lead.

What we can already see, however, is how the immigrant population can be mobilized to effect change. “We are the backbone of what America is, legal or illegal, it doesn’t matter,” proclaimed one participant in yesterday’s protest. The boycott was successful in shutting down many farms, factories and food outlets.

What we are seeing in this demonstration of illegal immigrants acting en masse—and the political effects, let alone the economic effects, of that action—is the early stages of the fulfillment of a very specific Bible prophecy.

God gave a dire warning to the Israelite peoples concerning immigrants from other cultures (the Bible uses the word strangers). He said that if the children of Israel were to rebel against His laws—to turn away from His commandments and embrace the practices of the heathen—they would suffer terribly (Deuteronomy 28:15-19). The curses included this prophecy: “The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail. Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever” (verses 43-46).

Just one way the “stranger” is getting above in America is through the economic impact of immigrants. On the one hand, the U.S. economy has become reliant on illegal workers. On the other, these illegal immigrants are costing the nation. America now finds itself in a Catch-22. Letting illegal immigrants become citizens en masse will only encourage more illegal immigrants to enter the country, perpetuating the problem. On the other hand, a large, unpatriotic, disgruntled workforce that the economy has become reliant upon spells political and economic trouble.

Illegal immigration is costing America billions. The Center for Immigration Studies (cis) estimated the total impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget: “[W]hen all taxes paid (direct and indirect) and all costs are considered, illegal households created a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion in 2002. We also estimate that, if there was an amnesty for illegal aliens, the net fiscal deficit would grow to nearly $29 billion” (“The High Cost of Cheap Labor,” August 2004).

No state has been more impacted financially by both illegal and legal immigration than California. “Analysis of the latest census data indicates that California’s illegal immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to nearly $9 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden from those three areas of state expenditures amounts to about $1,183 per household headed by a native-born resident” (Federation for American Immigration Reform, “The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Californians,” November 2004).

It is true: Despite popular perceptions, immigration does cost the average American worker—and especially the low-income worker: “A Harvard University study in 2004 found immigration—both legal and illegal—reduced annual earnings for American-born men by 3.7 percent, or nearly $1,700. For those without a high school degree, the effect was double that, with wages down 7.4 percent” (cnbc, April 10).

An added economic consequence of immigration is the bleeding of cash from host countries. Upon locating work in their host nation, many immigrants (legal or illegal) send a portion of their paychecks back home to their families. In the U.S., for example, Mexicans sent home $20 billion in 2005 alone, according to projections by Mexico’s Central Bank. This flood of cash is likely the largest source of foreign exchange in Mexico. The cash from Mexicans working in the U.S. is a driving force behind Mexico’s economy: It amounts to the equivalent of 2 percent of its gross domestic product. No wonder the Mexican government has done little to curb the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and, in many documented cases, has actually condoned their illegal entry.

There is no doubt that immigrants contribute to the American economy. But how much is being withheld and returned to their native land?

The solution to illegal immigration lies beyond politics. The curses immigration has thrust upon the Western world were prophesied in the Bible. The reasons behind the failure of our immigration practices are spiritual.

In our book The United States and Britain in Prophecy (free to Trumpet readers upon request), we explain that the nations of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK comprise the peoples of biblical Israel. This is important to understand, because the Bible has specific prophecies concerning these nations. One of those prophecies discusses the problem that these nations would have with immigration.

The imminent fulfillment of the stranger rising up in great numbers and overwhelming the Israelitish people, as described in Deuteronomy 28:15, is a sign of God’s curses being poured out on these nations. Lax immigration policies and weak borders are playing an instrumental role in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. God is cursing the nations of biblical Israel for their failure to hold fast to His laws. God is humbling us—imploring us to turn to Him.

Unless the people of Israel repent, “strangers” will continue to pour through their ports of entry and get above them until they lose the inheritance afforded them by Almighty God. This prophecy is being fulfilled even as you read this article.