Quite a few religion leaders in New York and throughout the U.S. say the immigration crackdown launched by President Donald Trump’s new administration has sown worry inside their migrant-friendly congregations. They’re pondering methods to withstand even within the face of warnings that homes of worship usually are not off-limits for arrests.
The Rev. Joseph Dutan, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle church in Queens, mentioned a few of his congregation members have been so frightened by the Trump-ordered strikes that they frightened attending Mass can be dangerous.
“More than scary, it’s sad,” Dutan mentioned. “I feel very bad for my people because they have a lot of fear in their heart.”
One other pastor in Queens, the Rev. Manuel Rodriguez of Our Woman of Sorrows Catholic church, mentioned lots of his 17,000 parishioners are undocumented and have youngsters who attend the parish’s college.
“We have children who are shaking literally and crying,” Rodriguez mentioned. “They know that at any time their mom, their dad, could be arrested and they could come back from school, and they could be gone.”
“Undocumented people go to church every week to pray that they can make ends meet, so they can pay the rent for their families,” he mentioned. “People are trying to survive, and this is just putting them through hell.”
A New York Metropolis mosque, Masjid Ansaru-Deen within the Bronx, has opened its door to migrants, offering shelter to some, mentioned Imam Omar Niass. He mentioned many are from his homeland of Senegal.
“I cannot leave anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, to sleep on the street,” he mentioned.
Citing his religion, Niass mentioned he’s not frightened concerning the coverage change.
“If Trump wants to close houses of worship, but God isn’t pleased, then he won’t be able to do a thing,” Niass mentioned.
In Portland, Oregon, the Rev. W.J. Mark Knutson, mentioned he plans to supply undocumented migrants sanctuary at Augustana Lutheran Church anyway — simply as he did in 2014. A person from El Salvador, needed for re-entering america illegally, took shelter within the church for practically three months, sleeping below the altar the primary few nights.
Rev. W. J. Mark Knutson, left, listens as Juan Francisco Aguirre-Velasquez provides an interview on the Augustana Lutheran Church, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. Aguirre-Velasquez, initially from El Salvador, sought sanctuary within the church to keep away from deportation in 2014. (AP Picture/Jenny Kane)
“Theologically, we’ll stand our ground against the government — an unjust law is no law at all,” Knutson informed The Related Press. “These are sacred spaces.”
In Philadelphia, the Rev. Robin Hynicka, pastor of Arch Avenue United Methodist Church, mentioned his church is dedicated to being a “justice seeking, reconciling, sanctuary congregation.”
FILE – On this Monday, Dec. 16, 2013 file picture, the Rev. Robin Hynicka, proper, embraces the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist clergyman. (AP Picture/Matt Rourke)
Throughout the first Trump administration, that dedication included sheltering an immigrant from deportation whereas he went via a profitable course of to acquire a visa.
“Our work now is bigger than simply opening the door of the church for one or two people to stay,” Hynicka mentioned. “Sanctuary has to be a value that we extend to one another through our policies, through the laws we enact.”
Different clergy ministering to undocumented migrants have been much less particular, although they vowed to proceed — and even develop — their help following this week’s announcement that federal immigration businesses might make arrests at church buildings, faculties and hospitals, ending present insurance policies that protected delicate areas from enforcement.
Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who leads the migration committee of the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops, joined the leaders of the Catholic Well being Affiliation of america and Catholic Charities USA in a press release Thursday lamenting the coverage change.
FILE – El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz talks with Celsia Palma, 9, of Honduras, as they walked to the Paso Del Norte Worldwide Port of Entry, Thursday, June, 27, 2019, in Juarez, Mexico. (AP Picture/Rudy Gutierrez)
“We are already witnessing reticence among immigrants to engage in daily life, including sending children to school and attending religious services,” the assertion mentioned. “Turning places of care, healing, and solace into places of fear and uncertainty for those in need, while endangering the trust between pastors, providers, educators and the people they serve, will not make our communities safer.”
Bishop Ebli De La Rosa, who oversees Church of God of Prophecy congregations in 9 southeastern states, mentioned the brand new insurance policies might depart his church buildings devastated. Of 52 pastors who serve within the church buildings he oversees, 28 are undocumented, as are about half of the 5,000 church members, he mentioned.
“Some of these pastors who have been in this country more than 15 or 20 years,” De La Rosa added. “They do the important, everyday work in their neighborhoods.”
Pastor Maria Elena Montalvo, who leads Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church within the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, mentioned she and her group are dealing with intense nervousness within the wake of the coverage change.
The church, in a predominantly working-class Latino neighborhood, has served as a sanctuary for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers for the previous seven years, since Montalvo turned pastor. Just lately, the congregation drew consideration for housing Muslim asylum seekers from Mauritania in its basement.
Montalvo mentioned she is captivated with serving to immigrants and refugees as a result of she was as soon as of their sneakers. She emigrated from Mexico in 1989.
“People are afraid to go to work, to school, to live their lives freely because they are afraid of being arrested or deported,” she mentioned.
Montalvo’s recites her favourite Bible verse from Gospel of Matthew, the place Jesus tells his followers to welcome the stranger and take care of the marginalized.
“I recite that verse every day,” Montalvo mentioned. “It really resonates with me.”
David Hollenbach, a Jesuit priest and Georgetown College professor with experience in faith, politics and humanitarian crises, mentioned there’s a lengthy custom in Christianity and different faiths that non secular communities may be sanctuaries for individuals in grave want.
“To violate that is also a very serious issue,” mentioned Hollenbach. “Jesus was himself a refugee. And so it’s not surprising that you find in the teachings of Jesus repeated calls to respect the needs of those who are migrants and strangers in our midst.”
Amongst Christian evangelical leaders, who symbolize a few of Trump’s most loyal supporters, there have been nuanced reactions.
The Rev. Robert Jeffress, a longtime Trump supporter and pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church, mentioned the outcry from some religion leaders was misplaced.
“There’s no such thing as a sanctuary that’s immune from the laws of our land,” he mentioned. “If there is an illegal activity on any square inch of America, the authorities have a right to go in.”
Jeffress added, nonetheless, “I doubt churches are going to be the first line of attack.”
Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics and Spiritual Liberty Fee of the Southern Baptist Conference, mentioned the transfer “leads to more questions and confusion than anything.”
The fee is the general public coverage arm of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination — a conservative physique through which help for Trump is robust.
“President Trump is right to fix our broken immigration system … but it must be done so without turning churches into wards of the state or expecting pastors to ask for papers of people coming through their doors,” Leatherwood mentioned in a press release.
“The unintended impact of this change will be that many law-abiding immigrants will be fearful to attend our churches.”
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AP Faith Group journalists Peter Smith, Mariam Fam and Holly Meyer contributed, as did AP journalist Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon.
By Related Press writers GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO, LUIS ANDRES HENAO and DEEPA BHARATH. Related Press faith protection receives help via the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely chargeable for this content material.
