The Rights and Duties of Citizenship

One fundamental truth of Parashat Sh'lach L'cha is that the stranger and the citizen should be bound by the same law. From a social perspective, we learn that polities have long been composed of citizens and strangers, of "insiders" and "outsiders." From a social justice perspective, we learn that Judaism demands equity before the law even, or perhaps especially, for those members of any nation who are not official citizens. In order for us to understand the implications of this principle for immigrants and resident aliens, we must first understand the related rights and duties of the citizen. Numbers is intertwines the fates of citizens and strangers.
The Hebrew here translated as "stranger," ger, literally means "sojourner," one not at home among a land's citizens and thus not necessarily protected by its practices. As Jacob Milgrom explains, the Hebrew ger specifies "a man [sic] of another tribe or district who, coming to sojourn in a place where he was not strengthened by the presence of his own kin, put himself under the protection of a clan or of a powerful chief." A stranger is thus reliant upon citizens for certain safeguards. By contrast, an ezrach, or "citizen," is a native member of a society, born into its protections and prohibitions. Those are the protections Numbers 15 commands the citizen to extend to the stranger. But before we can see what this means for the stranger, we need to examine what it means to be a citizen.
-Rabbi Seth M. Limmer

Judaism has long understood that to be a member of our community is first to be free and then to be as entitled to rights as one is enjoined by responsibilities.
-Rabbi Seth M. Limmer

Jewish law knows that human behavior needs at times to be limited--we cannot murder, steal, and much more in order to protect the possessions and lives of others.
-Rabbi Seth M. Limmer

To be a citizen is to balance one's freedoms in counterweight to society's needs. In Judaism, the needs of the whole take precedence over the rights of the individual. In today's United States, this very question is up for debate. On the one side are those of libertarian bent, who advocate for the doctrine of personal responsibility. They contend the purpose of America is to guarantee its citizens every "freedom to" without encumbering their behaviors with limiting laws...
-Rabbi Seth M. Limmer

To be a citizen in Jewish law is to be a member of society, bound by laws that serve the purpose of both personal growth and societal success. To be a citizen is to be committed to the existence and evolution of the entire populace, even at the expense of self-restraint...
The heritage that taught the world that every human being is created in the divine image likewise advocates that every human being- regardless of place of origin or current circumstances of living- deserves equal protection under the law.
-Rabbi Seth M. Limmer