Washington, DC — As the Trump administration and immigration enforcement agencies bring their violent roadshow from Chicago to Charlotte, faith leaders are standing out as some of the strongest voices of the majority who are pushing back on the mass deportation crusade terrorizing American communities and calling for a better way.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, America’s Voice Executive Director:
“Faith leaders from across the country are offering moral clarity and a sharp contrast to the moral collapse of our government leaders. In their words and deeds many faith leaders are calling for a vision of America grounded in our values, where we treat all of our neighbors with dignity and respect and uphold due process and the rule of law. They are standing in solidarity with immigrant communities and the majority of Americans who reject the harms of mass deportation.”
Among recent developments highlighting faith leaders’ engagement in opposition to mass deportation:
- America’s Catholic bishops issued a near-unanimous statement condemning the Trump administration: As the New York Times recapped, the bishops’ statement noted they “oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and “pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”…“We as Catholic bishops love our country and pray for its peace and prosperity,” the statement said. “For this very reason, we feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.”
- Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano highlights Catholic engagement on “one of the most pressing moral issues of our time” His column, “Catholic Church puts foot down on Trump’s mass deportation policy. That’s a start,” notes: “The cruelty this administration has shown throughout its deportation campaign — families torn apart as easily as the Constitution; U.S. citizens detained; wanton federal violence that a federal judge in Chicago described as “shock[ing] the conscience” — has become one of the most pressing moral issues of our times. The call by Catholic bishops to oppose this wrong is important — so like a voice crying in the wilderness, the church must set an example for the rest of the country to follow.”
- As covered in Axios, Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop Mark Eckman wrote in an open letter marking the Nov. 13 feast day of Mother Frances Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants: “They have become people who are often unjustly scapegoated for the social ills of our nation and dehumanized …”Currently, immigrants face deportation, often without warning and sometimes without due process protections,” and he noted that the church “supports immigration reform that provides legal status and a path to citizenship to those who have lived in the US for a certain amount of time, contributed to the nation, and otherwise have been law abiding.”
- In Charlotte, North Carolina, faith leaders have come out against the harms ICE operations have brought to community members: One United Methodist pastor told Axios that Trump’s immigration agenda is “abhorrent … The fact he has so much support from many people of faith saddens me.” And Collective Liberation Church lead pastor Rev. Benjamin Boswell called the treatment of immigrants, “antithetical to the Bible.”
