The ERLC joined a coalition of evangelical organizations in sending a letter to President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary nominee Kristi Noem, urging these leaders to remember their commitment to religious liberty. Evangelical churches offer the hope of the gospel to all. This letter asks the Trump Administration to respect the religious liberty of all in immigration policies:
On January 21, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the termination of longstanding policy guidance that limited the circumstances under which Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers would engage in immigration enforcement activities in “sensitive locations” such as churches, schools and hospitals.
With the public notice of the termination of this “sensitive locations” policy guidance stated that “criminal aliens — including murders [sic]…will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.” We wish to assure you that we know of no evangelical church or school that has ever harbored a murderer from arrest, and we would be very surprised if this has ever occurred — but, in any case, DHS enforcement in such an unlikely
circumstance would be permissible under the now-revoked guidance.We believe that this guidance was prudent; it allowed immigration enforcement actions to occur in and around such sensitive locations with supervisory approval for compelling public safety reasons, but it provided the assurance that, under normal circumstances, DHS would refrain from disrupting church services, classroom settings or medical care.
In a Baptist Press article, Brent Leatherwood takes issue with the policy change:
“No church that I’m aware of harbors criminal actors, whether they’re here legally or illegally, and no church leader wants that. President Trump is right to fix our broken immigration system – something we’ve long called for – but it must be done without turning churches into wards of the state or expecting pastors to ask for papers of people coming through their doors. The unintended impact of this change will be that many law-abiding immigrants will be fearful to attend our churches, and our central mission of Gospel proclamation and biblical formation will be inhibited.”
Read more on how the ERLC is advocating to preserve the Refugee Resettlement Program.
