Report: Over 10 Million U.S. Christians, Including 6 Million Catholics, At Risk of Deportation
The report also found that some 7 million U.S. citizens who are Christians live in households with someone who could be deported.
By Gary Gately
More than 10 million Christian immigrants in the U.S. — about 6 million of them Catholics — are at risk of deportation under the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, according to a new report by a coalition of Catholic and evangelical groups.
The report, “One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families,” also found that some 80% of Americans vulnerable to deportation are Christians, and 1 in 12 U.S. Christians — including nearly 1 in 5 Catholics — are either vulnerable to deportation themselves or live in a household with someone who is.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Migration and Refugee Services, along with the National Association of Evangelicals, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity and World Relief, published the report, which draws its title from 1 Corinthians.
The report is based on data, including percentages of religious affiliation in different migrant and national populations, and on an immigration advocacy group’s analysis of U.S. census data on migrants.
“Catholic teaching compels us to accompany those who are suffering,” Bishop Mark J. .Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, said during a video press conference after the release of the report. “This report should motivate every Catholic to demonstrate solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters through prayer, public witness and advocacy.
“These are not strangers; these are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Catholic teaching compels us to accompany those who are suffering,” Seitz added.
He noted that many immigrants who come to the U.S. have fled life-threatening gang violence or government oppression in their homelands.
“People are going to die if this deportation effort continues at the level it is,” Seitz said.
The report’s authors said they did not advocate political positions but hoped to raise awareness of the threat of deportation to Christians in the U.S.
The Christians at risk of deportation include both undocumented immigrants and those who have had legal status through programs that the Trump administration has revoked or seeks to revoke, though some of the administration’s actions face legal challenges.
The administration’s hard-line immigration policies threaten to separate family members, as nearly 7 million U.S. citizen Christians live in households with someone who could be deported, the report said.
“Mass deportation would inflict deep wounds by tearing apart spiritual as well as biological families,” warned Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. “We ask President Trump and members of Congress to show mercy and provide a way for our hard-working and peace-loving brothers and sisters to earn legal immigration status.”
Kim cited recent research showing that most evangelical Christians, who have strongly backed President Donald J. Trump, support deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes, but not mass deportations of those who have not.
“Most evangelical Christians do not want to see deportation on this scale, of immigrants who have not been convicted of violent crimes, who are members of our churches whose deportations would result in families being separated,” Kim said.
Trump also won the Catholic vote by the largest margin of any presidential candidate in more than a half-century, defeating then-Vice President Kamala Harris by an 18%-20% margin, according to exit polls.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of security and the means of livelihood.”
For their part, U.S. bishops have long affirmed the right of nations to secure borders, but say policies must be guided by the principles of justice, solidarity and the inherent dignity of every person.
And in February, Pope Francis sharply rebuked the Trump administration over its mass deportation policy, saying that forcibly removing migrants based solely on their undocumented status unjustly denies them their fundamental dignity and “will end badly.”
In a letter to U.S. bishops, Francis said Trump’s mass deportation plan had triggered a “major crisis” at this “decisive moment in history.
"The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," the first Latin American pope wrote.
Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, denounced the Trump administration’s stated goal of deporting all undocumented immigrants.
“If this administration intends to deport families on a massive scale, they should not do so in the name of Christianity,” Greene said. “These policies are not consistent with the values of Jesus…. Mass deportation of peaceful, faithful people is not justice — and certainly not Christian.”
The new report weaves in stories of Christians at risk of deportation.
In Springfield, Ohio, Vilès Dorsainvil serves as pastor of a growing Haitian congregation and as a community liaison for his county. He fled Port-au-Prince with a tourist visa on New Year’s Eve 2020, after armed gangs began targeting professionals like him.
Now, Dorsainvil and many in his flock fear they’ll be sent back to the same violence they fled in their homeland.
That’s because the Trump administration has moved to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, including those from Haiti, who cannot safely return to their homes. (Termination of TPS now faces legal challenges.)
“Many of us didn’t come because we were looking for jobs. We were being pushed away by the situation,” Dorsainvil said. “I left on December 31, 2020, because gangs had taken over our neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. They were targeting people like me — professionals, people who had jobs. You had to choose between your life and your work.
“We are not strangers,” Dorsainvil said. “We are the church.”
He added: “It’s time for the church to stand. I believe the church must help change the narrative. There’s this image that immigrants are criminals, but we are people of faith, people with families. We’re here to serve. And we need the church to speak up for us — not in politics, but in love.”
In Texas, Ana and Bernardo — married professionals from El Salvador — have lived in the United States for more than two decades under TPS. They came after Ana survived a brutal kidnapping. They’ve worked in dentistry, raised two children and built their lives around their parish: Ana sings in the worship band, their son is a youth pastor, and their daughter helps immigrants navigate the very system that keeps her parents in limbo.
“We’ve worked hard,” Bernardo said. “We’ve paid our taxes. We’ve raised our kids here. We are not criminals. We are always waiting, always anxious,” he said. “But we try to stay focused — like Peter walking on the water. If we keep looking at the waves, we’ll sink.”
Their greatest fear is being sent back to the country where Ana nearly lost her life. “We’ve built a life here — a life of faith and service,” Bernardo said. “If we were forced to leave, we’d lose everything — our jobs, our church, our family. I don’t know how we would start over.”
Across the country, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Catholic priest Father Kristopher Cowles’ parishioners face similar fears.
More than 70% of the parishioners in his church are immigrants, many from Latin America. Some have been paying into Social Security for 20 or 30 years, despite being ineligible to receive benefits.
“So many of our laws make it nearly impossible to regularize status, even when people want to,” Father Cowles said. “If lawmakers understood what people have fled — and what they’ve contributed — they would think differently.”
Bishop Seitz recalled America’s proud history as a nation of immigrants.
“One cannot help but ponder what our country and our lives would be like, if the same sort of restrictions and enforcement actions being contemplated today were imposed on those coming from places like Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy and elsewhere by the boat-full,” Seitz said.
Ask people who have come to this country in accordance with its laws how they feel about those who ignore the laws.