Faith Leaders, Including Pope Francis, Speak Out to Condemn Cruel, Chaotic, and Indiscriminate Harm of Trump Immigration and Refugee Policies

 Read online version of this release HERE

Washington, DC — Faith leaders from a wide variety of faith traditions are speaking out against and standing up to the Trump administration’s cruel and chaotic immigration and refugee agenda, calling instead for policies that align with broader values and seek to tamp down, instead of inflame, fear and chaos.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:  

“The powerful comments of faith leaders from multiple traditions against the chaos and cruelty of President Trump’s immigration and refugee agenda offer important moral clarity at a moment of confusion and fear. These leaders are standing up for a vision of America and the world where we treat all of our neighbors with dignity and respect. It’s also a reminder that the ‘resistance’ to Trump comes in many ways and from many different voices.  It may not take the form of mass mobilization and marches like in the first Trump era, but can be found in the words and actions in solidarity with immigrant communities and the majority of everyday Americans who reject Trump’s indiscriminate deportation agenda and its harms.”

Below is a sampling of recent powerful comments and examples of faith leaders pushing back against Trump-era immigration and refugee policies and plans:

• Pope Francis, in a new letter condemning the Trump administration’s demonization of migrants and plans for mass deportation: “I have closely followed the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis wrote. “The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality. It is one thing to develop a policy to regulate migration legally, it is another to expel people purely on the basis of their illegal status … 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.”
• Cardinal Robert McElroy, newly appointed archbishop of Washington, DC condemns notion of “massive and indiscriminate” deportations and sowing of fear: In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Cardinal McElroy “condemned the idea of what he called the ‘massive and indiscriminate deportation’ of immigrants, ‘many of whom have been in this country for decades.’ McElroy said that the ‘indiscriminate nature’ of ICE raids aims to create fear so that people don’t go to church, school ‘and feel terrorized in their lives — so that they will, as the some say, self-deport.’”

• AP: “27 religious groups sue Trump administration to protect houses of worship from immigration arrests” – the accompanying article quotes Rev. Sean Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church: “We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear…By joining this lawsuit, we’re seeking the ability to gather and fully practice our faith, to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

• Pastor Gabriel Salguero, evangelical leader and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition said during an interview in conjunction with the National Prayer Breakfast attended by President Trump: “We need to deal with criminals and violent criminals in ways that keep our community safe. We support that. On the other hand, they’re passing memos and executive orders that are way beyond that scope … if it’s true that the administration is worried about violent criminals, why did they pardon over a thousand people who acted violently in the Capitol?”
• Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals said: ““Should churches be law-abiding? Absolutely. Should they be cooperating with agencies to ensure that criminal influences are dealt with? Absolutely…But by and large, those communities that are experiencing fear and not going to church is far beyond the very small portion of the immigrant, undocumented criminal segment.”
  
• Mark Hetfield, HIAS President, reflecting on HIAS participation in new lawsuit challenging Trump refugee admissions suspension Executive Order: “The American Jewish community owes its very existence to those times when the United States opened its doors to refugees fleeing anti-Semitism and persecution…HIAS will stand for welcome, stand up for what we believe in, and fight this refugee ban in court.”

• Rick Santos, head of the Church World Service, also assessed the new lawsuit challenging Trump’s refugee admissions suspension: “The impact of these executive actions has been sweeping and harmful for our refugee clients, our staff and our local faith community partners. These executive actions have abandoned refugee families both abroad and those who are already a part of our American communities.”
• Recall Episcopal Bishop Budde’s powerful words directly to President Trump: These faith voices join the powerful January remarks of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington Mariann Edgar Budde, who issued a direct plea to President Trump at the National Cathedral, stating: “One final plea, Mr. President … I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now …The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals … They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwara, and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, for those in our communities whose children fear their parents are going to be taken away and to help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”

Follow Vanessa Cárdenas and America’s Voice on BlueSky: vcardenas.bsky.social and americasvoice.bsky.social and Twitter: @VCardenasDC and @AmericasVoice

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