«When Jesus told us to love our neighbors, he didn’t also tell us to make sure they had documents»
Religious leaders express dismay at news that Trump will allow raids on churches to flush out migrants
Religious leaders in the United States are reacting with concern to news that President-elect Donald Trump plans to reverse a long-standing policy that discourages state immigration officials from conducting raids on churches, schools and hospitals in search of migrant people who may having found refuge there.
Second a report from NBC News on Wednesday, Dec. 11, the new Trump administration plans to eliminate a policy outlined in a 2011 internal U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement memo by then-Director John Morton. The policy discourages government agents from making arrests in, or near, “sensitive locations,” such as places of worship.
The news comes as Trump made a commitment during his election campaign to carry out the “largest deportation” in the history of the United States which, he said, could begin immediately after he takes office, and in an interview given over the weekend hinted that US citizens could be deported along with their undocumented family members.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and one of Trump’s evangelical advisers, argued in an email that the policy change is more limited in intent and that he is “convinced that the new Trump administration will focus on criminal illegal immigrants”. He insisted that the policy “serves as a warning” to illegal immigrants who engage in criminal activity, such as “sex, human and drug traffickers or rapists, gang members. I in no way foresee the administration targeting or entering schools or churches, prosecuting God-fearing, law-abiding immigrants who have been here 15 years or more and whose children were born or raised here,” Rodriguez said.
But other religious leaders aren’t so sure, such as those participating in the New Sanctuary Movement, a faith-based group that began under President Barack Obama’s administration and expanded significantly during Trump’s first term. Participants in the movement, which includes members of many faiths, allow illegal immigrants at risk of deportation to take up residence in places of worship, hoping to pressure immigration officials to withdraw their deportation orders. Some immigrants lived in churches for years, until they finally left after deportation orders were lifted or modified.
Umstead Park United Church of Christ in Raleigh was one of six North Carolina churches that hosted illegal immigrants during the first Trump administration. The Rev. Doug Long, a now-retired former Umstead pastor, told Religion News Service that he was not entirely surprised by the proposed change, which activists feared would occur during Trump’s first term: “When former leaders of North Carolina sanctuaries met last month and activists concluded that churches that want to help illegal immigrants will have to look for new avenues.”
“When Jesus told us to love our neighbors, he didn’t also tell us to make sure they had papers,” said Pastor Isaac Villegas, a Mennonite whose church, Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship, sheltered to an illegal immigrant during the first Trump administration. “He just said he loves and cares for his neighbors. Point”.
The Rev. Noel Andersen, a longtime immigrant rights advocate, United Church of Christ minister and national director of Church World Service, a group that helps resettle refugees, expressed outrage at reports of the policy change.
“The right of all people to find safety, refuge, and rest in places of worship is fundamental to our nation’s history of religious freedom and our long-standing values,” he said in a statement. «No one should be afraid of being deported when they go to places of worship, seek medical care, social services, participate in public demonstrations or take their children to school. Regardless of what policies the Trump administration rescinds or proposes, faith communities will continue to look to our sacred texts and centuries of tradition to live out our faith while welcoming immigrants and protecting the most vulnerable among us.”
Il New Sanctuary Movement is an extension of an earlier effort that occurred in the 1980s, when churches along the U.S.-Mexico border opened their doors to a surge in migrants, particularly those fleeing El Salvador and Guatemala , whose asylum requests had been largely denied by the government. The movement is credited with pressuring President Ronald Reagan’s administration to do more to help Guatemalans and Salvadorans.
Religious activists associated with the movement also pushed San Francisco to pass a “sanctuary city” ordinance in 1989 that ended local cooperation with federal immigration officials. The law change was the first example of “sanctuary cities,” a movement that expanded during Trump’s first term, and which he has repeatedly condemned.
