Immigration policy for the US has always been both a practical and a moral issue. Even practical considerations of commerce and diversity have moral implications.

So how do we identify and then rank the moral principles that are invoked in debates over immigration policy? How do we know when we should take people in and when we should concentrate on improving life where they already live?

We will look at contemporary American religious explorations of "who is my brother/sister" and how the biblically-based obligations to "love your neighbor" and "love the stranger" relate to each other. We will look at interpretations of immigration and humanitarian aid and intervention by governments in the work of contemporary moral philosophers.