A Latino pastor said churches are fearful of mass deportations at services as President Donald Trump’s administration rapidly cracks down on illegal immigration.
“We’re called as pastors to serve all communities,” Reverend Dr. Gabriel Salguero told Fox News Digital. “So we don’t ask, as pastors, whether people are immigrants and what their status is. We don’t have the bandwidth, and we’re not Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. We’re not police. But we’re deeply concerned about how these policies are going to affect children in our Sunday schools and for families that are in our worship service.”
Salguero is pastor of The Gathering Place in Orlando, Florida, and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, (NaLEC), which represents thousands of Latino evangelical churches and faith leaders across the nation.
Since returning to office, President Trump has rapidly begun to fulfill his campaign promise to curb the illegal immigration crisis and deport violent criminal migrants, issuing several executive orders aimed at overhauling U.S. immigration law and policy.
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ICE agents make arrests on September 25, 2019, in Revere, Massachusetts. President Trump issued a number of executive orders cracking down on illegal immigration during his first week and second term in office.
Thousands of violent criminals have been detained by ICE, according to the White House, with 962 criminal illegal immigrant arrests recorded on Wednesday alone.
Trump has authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to roll back guidelines that restricted ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement at “sensitive” locations, like schools, churches and hospitals.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the DHS said in a statement on January 21 announcing the changes. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
Salguero’s group, NaLEC, has come out against these policy changes, calling them “harmful” and an attack on religious liberty.
The church coalition is supportive of Trump’s actions to deport violent criminals, but also has concerns about other immigrants being targeted.
“We want to make sure that in this kind of enforcement, there’s not a chill sent up the spine of Latino evangelical churches and communities for those people who are not violent criminals, but are people who are starting small businesses, who are going to school,” Salguero told Fox News Digital.
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A Latino pastor said his churches are navigating the difficulties of potential ICE raids at their churches. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
“We’re looking for a sober approach that deals to violent criminals, secures the border, but finds a way to integrate the majority of immigrants who are trying to do good to this country,” he continued.
Fears over Trump’s immigration policies had caused attendance and church participation to decline, according to Salguero.
“They said, ‘We can’t go to church. We don’t feel safe. We’re not sure how this is going to work out,'” he told Fox News Digital of comments he’d heard.
The faith leader acknowledged that ICE and other immigration officials have a right to enter their worship spaces to enforce the law and should be treated respectfully. His group is training spokespersons for each church who can respond in a calm way if immigration officers visit their church. They are also giving parishioners information about their rights.
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Rev. Gabriel Salguero said that Latino churches are afraid of ICE raids because of Trump’s executive actions cracking down on illegal immigration in sensitive spaces like churches. (The Gathering Place/Getty Images)
He believes that Latino pastors have a responsibility to both follow the nation’s laws and keep their biblical commitment to serving all people.
“For us, this is not a partisan issue. This is a pastoral issue. Christ has called us to walk alongside these families, to love them,” he said.
Salguero is a registered independent, but emphasized that Latino evangelicals are not a “monolith” and share a variety of opinions on Trump’s immigration plans.
He said NaLEC has spent the past two decades calling on Congress for “common sense, bipartisan immigration reform.”
In a press release, NaLEC asked the Trump administration to “reconsider these harmful policies while continuing to work with Congress toward comprehensive immigration reform that is grounded in justice, compassion, and respect for the dignity of all people, regardless of their immigration status.”
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At Friday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, referencing a New York Times poll showing “83%” of Americans supported deportations of violent criminal illegal immigrants, and “97%” of the deportations carried out by the Trump administration so far had deportation orders from the previous administration, according to ICE.
The Department of Homeland Security and White House did not return a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
