Even as Donald Trump presents himself as a “defender of the Christian faith,” a growing number of church leaders are denouncing his policies, including on immigration. Many are also taking aim at the Christian nationalist ideology underpinning them.
Critics say Trump’s approach threatens the First Amendment’s protections on freedom of religion and violates sacred tenets of the faith, namely welcoming the stranger.
“For me, as a pastor, this is not a partisan issue,” said the Reverend Gabriel Salguero during a recent call with media. A registered independent, Salguero is president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. “It is a moral and pastoral issue.”
He added, “We are called by Jesus in our tradition, by the Torah and other sacred writings in other traditions, to look out for the least, the last, and the most vulnerable.”
Evangelicals, Latinos among them, form an important part of Trump’s base and played a key role in his election victory, according to an analysis of exit polling by Edison National Election Pool.
Other religious denominations—including leaders in the Jewish community, as well as Black Protestant congregations, among others—have similarly denounced Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant crackdown.
Policies violate freedom of religion
Now, some are taking a hard look at Trump’s first month in office, including the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision rescinding its “sensitive locations” policy, which green lighted the interruption of religious services to arrest immigrants. That, they argue, represents a direct attack on religious liberties.
“Enforcement actions at places of worship interfere with religious activities and the ability of people of faith to fulfill their religious mandates,” said Jim Simpson, executive director of the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University.
In mid-February, over two dozen Christian and Jewish religious denominations and associations filed a lawsuit against lifting the “sensitive locations” policy.
“Collectively, the plaintiffs represent millions of Americans and tens of thousands of houses of worship. It is truly historic in its scope and breadth,” said Simpson.
A unified Catholic message on migrants
Trump’s policies have also helped narrow what had been a widening ideological divide within the Catholic Church between its more liberal wing, represented by Pope Francis, and conservative leaders in the US.
Despite its rightward tilt in recent years, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which represents the highest levels of Church leadership in the country, “continues to stand up for immigrants, lobbying for generous policies to respect the right to migrate,” explained journalist and author Mary Jo McConahay, whose book, Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and The Far Right, details the US Church’s political transformation.
According to McConahay, there is a consensus at the top of the Catholic institutional hierarchy that Trump’s immigration policies run afoul of the church’s core beliefs. “The Catholic Church in the United States describes itself as a ‘church of immigrants’,” she noted, adding US Bishops continue to “stand up for immigrants, lobbying for generous policies that respect the right to migrate.”
Before being hospitalized in February for double pneumonia, Pope Francis, who is 88, penned a scathing letter to US bishops decrying the “major crisis” triggered by Trump’s deportation policies and imploring them to stand for the rights of migrants
“What is built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” he wrote.
Francis also took issue with the US’s perceived retreat from democracy under the Trump administration and what he called its “myopic, extremist, resentful and aggressive nationalism.”
Francis then offered a few words for Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, who in past remarks has described the notion of Christian love as being primarily centered on family and nation. “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests,” wrote Francis in response, arguing instead for a “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
Last week a federal judge and Trump appointee rejected a lawsuit by the Conference of Bishops seeking to compel the Trump administration to reinstate funds for the Church’s refugee resettlement program. Those funds were frozen in January alongside all foreign aid. The USCCB is appealing the ruling.
Appeals to white supremacy
A petition is being circulated, meanwhile, by the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism that accuses proponents, including many in the MAGA movement, of using Christian theology as a “cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation.”
It reads, “We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our fellow Christians to join us in opposing this threat to our faith and our nation.”
Still, Trump continues to enjoy support from others in the faith community.
Reverend Samuel Rodriguez with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference said he doesn’t believe the Trump Administration will target “a man who is working, whose family was raised here, kids were born here and has never received even a parking ticket… I don’t believe that person will be targeted for deportation.”
Reports have shown numerous cases of individuals without prior convictions having been detained and/or deported by immigration officials in recent weeks.
“I don’t know any pastor, bishop, rabbi, or any religious leader who’s trying to harbor violent criminals,” Salguero responded, ticking off moves by the administration, from challenging birthright citizenship to ending Temporary Protected Status, that target all immigrant communities.
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, did not mince words regarding the administration’s intentions.
“In the span of just weeks…. we’ve seen language criminalizing our parishioners and neighbors and immigration enforcement actions that risk normalizing a lack of respect for core constitutional, legal, and due process protections,” he said. “We have learned that being an admitted racist is forgivable, but fleeing across the border is not.”
African American Churches are also speaking out.
“Though my people did not immigrate here but were violently taken, it is for us to always show the hospitality that we have not received,” said Pastor William Lamar IV of the historic Metropolitan AME Church in Washington DC. “Our work is to make sure that this land is hospitable for all.”
