Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 16:31 pm (CNA).
Catholic and evangelical leaders are urging Christians to consider the “sobering” effects of mass deportation efforts by the government, arguing that ongoing aggressive immigration enforcement will be felt beyond those who are being deported.
Church leaders with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, World Relief, and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity in their report “One Part of the Body” highlight the potential impacts of mass deportations on Christian families in the U.S.
“In the United States,” the leaders write in the report, “immigrants from various countries form integral parts of the body of Christ. Most, of course, are lawfully present, whether as naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, resettled refugees, or others with permanent legal status.”
“But,” the report argues, “a significant share of the immigrants who are a part of our body are vulnerable to deportation, whether because they have no legal status or their legal protections could be withdrawn.”
“That has long been true, but it is of increased urgency given President Trump’s repeated pledge to carry out ‘the largest deportation in U.S. history,’” they write.
The report includes what the leaders call “sobering” statistics that reveal how broadly this situation may affect Christians.
Currently, 80% of all individuals at risk of deportation are Christians, according to the report. The majority of this group is Catholic at 61%, greatly surpassing the 13% of evangelicals and 7% of other Christian denominations.
About 1 in 12 Christians are vulnerable to deportation or live with someone who is, specifically immigrants in the U.S. who entered “unlawfully” or “on a temporary nonimmigrant visa,” the report says.
The report specifies that of these Christians, 1 in 5 are Catholic.
The leaders state that people in the U.S. who have been granted temporary protected status could have their status “withdrawn by the executive branch, without the need for congressional approval.” More than half of those individuals are Catholics.
Those who hold temporary status “are physically present in the U.S. as of a particular date when the conditions in their country of origin make it unsafe for them to return for reasons such as war, conflict, a natural disaster, or a public health epidemic,” according to the report.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are also primarily Catholic, making up 73% of the group. The DACA program was originally created to allow deferred deportation for young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children, but the report argues that this program is at risk along with its Christian recipients.
Individuals who have been granted DACA status will be at risk “if the Trump administration (or any subsequent presidential administration) would follow the appropriate processes to terminate DACA or if the U.S. Supreme Court would agree with the lower courts that the program was created illegally and, as a result, invalidate the policy.”
Lastly, the statistics reveal that 58% of immigrants who came to the U.S. as asylum seekers are Catholic. These individuals “could be at risk of deportation after the final disposition of their immigration court proceedings, if they are not granted asylum or other relief by an immigration judge.”
The report states that “nearly 7 million Christians who are U.S. citizens live in households with someone at risk of deportation,” arguing that this issue does not affect only immigrants but also their families and other Christians.
“Our prayer is that the president and his administration as well as the Congress will take these stark realities into consideration as they pursue immigration policies,” the religious leaders say.
“Just as importantly,” they continue, “we pray that the whole of the American church, including the 11 out of 12 Christian households not at risk of losing a family member to deportation, will recognize that this suffering that is likely to affect many parts of the body of Christ actually impacts them as well.”
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What a lot of nonsense. Christians suffer when we allow illegal aliens to invade our country and their first act when stepping over the border is to break our laws.
Christians suffer when we allow illegal aliens to invade our country and do so in order to stack the deck for Democrat candidates in elections thereby undermining our freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
Christians suffer when we allow illegal aliens to invade our country and allow these non-citizens to obtain Social Security including health benefits and thus steal from taxpaying citizens and undermining the inevitable bankruptcy of the Social Security system.
Christians suffer when we allow illegal aliens to invade our country and proceed to rape and murder our young women and wives.
We could go on and on. All you need to do is read the news and have an open mind and you’ll have all the reasons you need to conclude that Christian are suffering because of gross dereliction of duty by elected officials who selfishly sought to undermine our system of government.
The suffering of those who cannot get into the country legally because the waiting list is 10 years long, as all the resources go to figuring out the cases of illegal immigrants, also affects all Christians. I somehow suspect that most of these sufferers are also Catholic.
Probably they are less likely to be MS-13, and also less likely to have funded the drug cartels destroying their countries, in order to travel into our country.
Why not try supporting an expansion of legal immigration? As a side benefit, this avoids creating a large underclass ripe for oppression by various unsavory American elements.
My understanding is that Obama holds the record for deportations. Maybe I missed the outcry.
Stack the deck for Democratic candidates? Illegal aliens cannot vote. You are regurgitating right wing talking points that are not true. Do you have a real name?
There is no suffering for “all” Christians when illegals are deported. Simply put, people who come here illegally violate federal immigration laws. Regardless of what their motives or reasons are, they are technically criminals, and criminals must be deported to uphold the rule of law, which is the legal foundation of our nation. Christians suffer when their hard-earned tax dollars are diverted to provide illegals with money for food, shelter, cars, and cell phones. That is a crime on top of a crime. The report says that 80% of illegals self-identify as Christians. Probably not true, but if it is, then believers have a responsibility to obey the laws of the nation where they reside, or hope to reside. No excuses. We need to resist the temptation to allow the hierarchy to try to make us feel guilty for upholding the law.