I don't think there was much of a concept of illegal vs. legal residents of a "state" either-- accept possibly for an invasion. There also wasn't a whole lot of handouts by the "state" that one group of people was paying for, but another group was receiving.
All things being equal, you treat people that weren't born here as you would those that were. All things are no longer equal.
There's nothing tortured about my theology.
God has no borders, and even if he did, I'm not convinced that we would be better off without the "illegals". Sure, they're breaking the law, but I don't see how them coming here hurts us. The depressed wage argument is weak when one looks at how fast U.S. per capita incomes have grown in the past five years...
Now, if we decide to give them all welfare, that's a different matter, but whether or not we extend services to them is our decision, not theirs. Don't blame them for the welfare that we give them. They're not responsible for that policy.