(RNS) — Former President Donald Trump’s election to a second time period prompted religion teams that work with migrants and refugees to reaffirm their dedication to proceed their work on Wednesday (Nov. 6), after Trump campaigned on blocking migration and finishing up report deportations.
“Given President-elect Trump’s report on immigration and guarantees to droop refugee resettlement, prohibit asylum protections, and perform mass deportations, we all know there are severe challenges forward for the communities we serve,” mentioned Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of International Refuge, previously referred to as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, in an announcement.
On the marketing campaign path, Trump additionally promised to finish automated citizenship for immigrants’ kids born within the U.S.; finish protected authorized standing for sure teams, together with Haitians and Venezuelans; and reinstate a journey ban for folks from sure Muslim-majority areas.
If Trump carries out his plans, FWD.us, an immigration and prison justice reform advocacy group, tasks that by the beginning of 2025, about 1 in 12 U.S. residents, and practically 1 in 3 Latino residents, may very well be impacted by the mass deportations both due to their authorized standing or that of somebody within the family.
“If the mass deportation articulated all through the marketing campaign season is applied, it will tear households, communities, and the American economic system aside,” Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit working with refugees, mentioned in an announcement. “The answer to the dysfunction on the border is to prioritize complete immigration reform that updates our antiquated immigration legal guidelines whereas defending individuals who want refuge.”
“We’ll proceed to talk reality to energy in solidarity with refugees and displaced folks in search of security around the globe,” Hetfield mentioned. “We is not going to be intimidated into silence or inaction,” his group wrote.
Omar Angel Perez, immigrant justice director for Religion in Motion, a social justice group, mentioned in an announcement, “We acknowledge the concern and uncertainty many are feeling and pray that we will channel that power into solidarity and resilience.”
“This second calls us to take instant motion to guard the communities focused all through this marketing campaign and through the prior Trump administration,” Perez mentioned. “We stay dedicated to offering assets, help, and coaching to empower folks to know their rights and stand agency in opposition to makes an attempt to undermine their energy.”
Matthew Soerens. Photograph courtesy of World Aid
Matthew Soerens, vice chairman of advocacy and coverage at World Aid, the humanitarian arm of the Nationwide Affiliation of Evangelicals, pointed to polling by Lifeway Analysis earlier this 12 months that confirmed that 71% of evangelicals agree that the U.S. “has an ethical accountability to just accept refugees.”
“A majority of Christian voters supported President-elect Trump, in accordance with the exit polls, however it’d be an error to presume that implies that most Christians align with every thing that he’s mentioned within the marketing campaign associated to refugees and immigration,” he mentioned.
Soerens defined that when Christians “understand that the majority refugees resettled to the U.S. lately have been fellow Christians, that they’re admitted lawfully after an intensive vetting course of abroad and that many have been persecuted significantly due to their religion in Jesus, my expertise has been that they need to maintain refugee resettlement.”
“We’ll be doing all we will to encourage President-elect Trump, who has positioned himself as a defender of Christians in opposition to persecution, to make sure that the U.S. stays a refuge for these fleeing persecution on account of their religion or for different causes acknowledged by U.S. legislation,” he mentioned.
In an announcement, Jesuit Refugee Service mentioned Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign rhetoric and his earlier time period had harmed “forcibly displaced folks.”
Insurance policies in his first time period “separated households, arrange new hurdles within the asylum course of, dramatically lowered the variety of refugees the U.S. resettled, launched a ban on admitting vacationers from predominantly Muslim nations, and deprioritized worldwide efforts to handle the exploding world refugee inhabitants,” the Catholic group mentioned.
To welcome and serve migrants is “an obligation” for Catholics, the JRS assertion mentioned. “How we reply to the tens of hundreds of thousands of individuals pressured to flee their houses is a severe ethical, authorized, diplomatic, and financial query that impacts all of us,” the group wrote.
Regardless of the disproportionate influence that Trump’s proposed immigration insurance policies would have on Latino communities, Trump made vital beneficial properties amongst Latinos in contrast with earlier elections, profitable Latino American males’s vote by 10 factors.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the Nationwide Hispanic Christian Management Convention, attributed Trump’s success to a number of elements, together with a rejection of progressive ideologies, financial considerations and considerations about authorities overreach.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez in 2013. Courtesy picture
However the evangelical megachurch pastor additionally mentioned, “Whereas immigration is a nuanced concern throughout the Latino group, there’s a rising sentiment in opposition to open-border insurance policies and the availability of assets to unlawful immigrants on the perceived expense of Americans.”
Karen González, a Guatemalan immigrant and writer of a number of books on Christian responses to immigration, referred to as Trump’s victory within the well-liked vote “particularly crushing” in mild of his anti-migrant rhetoric. She attributed Trump’s success with Latinos to white supremacy and misogyny throughout the group.
“We actually aspire to be secondary white folks, and we expect that aligning ourselves with white supremacy goes to avoid wasting us, and it’s not,” she mentioned.
González was among the many religion leaders who mentioned that they had not emotionally reckoned with the potential for a Trump win earlier than the outcomes have been introduced.
Dylan Corbett, government director of Hope Border Institute, a Catholic group that helps migrants in El Paso, Texas, and in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, throughout the U.S.-Mexican border, informed RNS, “I used to be hopeful that we had turned the web page as a result of I feel (the primary Trump time period) represents a very difficult time in our nation.”
Corbett referred to as for “deep reckoning” in church buildings and grassroots communities. “There’s the notion that the (immigration) system is damaged, and I feel the longer we wait to essentially repair the state of affairs, you open up the door to political extremism. You open up the door to incendiary rhetoric, to low-cost options,” he mentioned.
Whereas President Joe Biden’s administration had begun with “some actually aspirational rhetoric,” it “left a blended legacy on immigration,” opening the door to Trump’s “harmful politics.”
“Religion leaders specifically are going to should assume a really public voice in protection of the human rights of now a really weak a part of our group,” he mentioned.
Corbett expressed concern that Trump would possibly mirror Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ways in Operation Lone Star in his push for enormous deportations, citing deaths on account of high-speed chases on highways and report migrant deaths.
“It’s going to fall to frame communities like El Paso to take care of the fallout of what we will anticipate can be some very damaged insurance policies and a few very harmful rhetoric,” Corbett mentioned. “And so I feel we have now to organize for that. And meaning turning again to our religion, going again to the Gospels, going again to the witness of Jesus, the witness of the saints, martyrs,” he mentioned.
In International Refuge’s assertion, the group inspired Individuals to help immigrants and refugees, “emphasizing the significance of household unity, humanitarian management, and the long-standing advantages of immigrant and refugee contributions to U.S. communities and economies.”
Vignarajah added, “In unsure occasions, it’s important to keep in mind that our function as Individuals is to assist these in want, and in doing so, we advance our personal pursuits as nicely.”
Perez informed RNS earlier than the election that Religion in Motion had ready for a possible Trump win and that the group would draw on its expertise “responding to the assaults on the immigrant group” and mounting safety protection campaigns to stop deportations.
González recalled working in a authorized clinic after Trump’s 2016 election and serving to migrants course of citizenship and sponsorship functions earlier than he took workplace. “That is actually the time for that type of sensible motion of how we will serve our neighbors,” she mentioned.
“Collectively, we’ll remodel our grief right into a power for change that can construct a extra simply, equitable society that respects the dignity of all folks,” Perez mentioned.
