“Well, not only was Jesus a rebel, but Jesus was an undocumented immigrant himself when he fled to Egypt seeking persecution [sic] in his day,” said Rev. Ryan Ellers in a debate with CNN conservative contributor S.E. Cupp. “So the question becomes [would] we call Jesus himself illegal if he were, you know, in our modern times?”

The Gospel of Matthew does indeed tell of Jesus, May, and Joseph fleeing from Bethlehem to Egypt to avoid the evil King Herod. But at the time, Egypt and Palestine weren’t different countries; they were both Roman provinces. In that light, the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt is less like sneaking into Texas from Mexico, and more like sneaking into Texas from New Mexico. In short, he may have been a “migrant” ...